Officials look at new fee for paving of dirt roads

Administrators agree something needs to be done to cut the number of dusty dirt roads in the county.

By JAMES THORNER

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 5, 2000

NEW PORT RICHEY -- The age of white lime rock could soon yield to the age of blacktop.

Pasco County administrators inched closer Thursday to requiring people building homes on small rural lots to fork over the money to blacktop their roads.

Perennial complaints about cars kicking up dust on rural roads are forcing the county to consider strengthening its paving requirements, County Administrator John Gallagher said at a special meeting of the Development Review Committee.

Gallagher said he favors requirements tough enough to reduce the blight of dusty roads but lenient enough not to interfere with people's "lifestyle choice" of dwelling in the country.

Although administrators considered Thursday's meeting a brainstorming session, a rough consensus emerged for charging home builders a paving assessment for each house sitting on a lot smaller than five acres.

The fee would be over and above the transportation impact fees the county already charges developers.

County Attorney Robert Sumner said current regulations have encouraged the construction of rural homes on one-acre lots without necessary road improvements. The practice is common in such communities such as Shady Hills and San Antonio.

"We cannot sustain allowing one-acre tracts all over the county and providing only dirt roads," Sumner said.

The committee suggested roads be coated with an asphalt substitute called open-graded emulsion mix. The material is cheaper, but less durable, than regular asphalt.

Sumner said the blight of dirt roads stems in part from the county's desire to keep families together.

A property owner, for example, would request splitting his property into small lots for his children, Sumner said. When the county didn't mandate road improvements, dirt roads proliferated.

"That was the opening in the door," Sumner said.

Still, questions of fairness crept into the discussions. Bipin Parikh, the assistant county administrator for development, asked if it was wise to force a person building just one home to pave a half-mile dirt road.

Sumner said the development code is rife with inequities but that something needed to be done about dirt roads.

"We're not talking about fairness," Sumner said.

The meeting ended with Gallagher asking his subordinates to come back in a couple of weeks with more detailed suggestions to stiffen paving requirements.

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