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- Hold a public hearing and receive testimony regarding public convenience provided by the identified segment of County Road 107. Consider the testimony presented, and determine if the identified section of County Road 107 is unnecessary for public convenience;
- If testimony indicates that the road segment is unnecessary for public convenience, adopt the attached resolution terminating County maintenance on the identified segment of County Road 107; and
- Once the applicant provides confirmed gate access to the required agencies and individuals, and a $7,500 work order deposit toward the County’s actual cost of installing new traffic signs, direct staff to assemble and issue an encroachment permit to the applicant permitting four gates, containing conditions for the applicant to: operate and maintain the gates going forward, provide access to the required agencies, and to reimburse the County for all traffic sign work associated with permitting the gates; and
- Once the above encroachment permit for the four gates is issued, and the applicant’s County work order balance has been fully reimbursed to date, authorize the Chair to execute the resolution and direct the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors to record a certified copy of the adopted resolution.
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The Board of Supervisors directed staff at the Board Meeting held on May 9, 2017, to proceed with processing an encroachment permit application to allow four gates installed across County rights-of-way along a 2/3 mile stretch of County Road (CR) 107, southwest of Clarksburg. See Attachment A for a Location Map. The gates were installed by the applicant to discourage dumping and other illegal activities on the applicant’s adjacent property. If the Board permits the gates, the subject road section can no longer be publicly maintained using State funds. Per State Code, termination of County maintenance requires a public hearing and recordation of a resolution.
BACKGROUND
On October 31, 2016, County staff received a complaint from a natural gas well company that their staff was unable to access two of their gas wells along CR 107 due to a new, locked gate at the west end of Courtland Road. See Attachments B and C for photos of the gate. County staff investigated the complaint, and found that in addition to the gate at the end of Courtland Road at CR 107, there were three additional locked gates recently installed at the Teal Road/CR 107 intersection about 2/3-mile to the south. See Attachment D for a photo of these three gates. All four gates are unpermitted encroachments within county right-of-way. See Attachment E for a Vicinity Map.
Per California Streets and Highways Code Section 1486, new gates are not allowed on any county highway except those allowed by the Board of Supervisors. It is unclear as to what recorded rights the county holds for CR 107 along the Deep Water Ship Channel, however, records show that this section of road has been on the county maintained mileage at least since 1955.
County staff investigated further to determine that the new property owner of Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN) 043-020-003, Mr. Anthony Vasquez, was responsible for installing the gates. Mr. Vasquez was notified by staff that he needed to restore public access immediately, and to submit an encroachment permit application if he wished to have the Board of Supervisors consider approval of the gates; otherwise they needed to be removed. On November 22, 2016, Mr. Vasquez (applicant) submitted an encroachment permit application for the four gates across county road rights-of-way. The applicant is requesting permission in order to discourage trash dumping and other illegal activities on his property (e.g., firearm discharge). On February 14, 2017, the applicant’s parcel, adjacent to CR 107 and behind the closed gates, was approved for an outdoor cannabis grow site.
The gates can be managed by four different locks. There are at least six entities that would require access through these gates: Reclamation District No. 999 for levee maintenance and patrol, California Resources Production (operates the two natural gas wells accessed through this section of road), Port of West Sacramento, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Water Resources, and the Clarksburg Fire Protection District. The Reclamation District has expressed support for the installation of these gates, and informed staff that two grass fires were started by trespassers in this area of CR 107 during the summer of 2016. California Resources Production is not opposed to opening the gates to access their sites. The applicant would be conditioned to provide continuous access to the six aforementioned entities, Yolo County Public Works, and any other emergency responders.
To allow these four gates and restrict the access to public motorists, the County would also need to terminate maintenance on this 2/3- mile section of CR 107. County Road 107 is a remote, unpaved road, serving very few motorists. The road is mostly used for maintenance of the Deep Water Ship Channel, flood fighting, and for farmers to access their land. This road does not serve as a primary access to a home. Terminating maintenance and gating the road section would not restrict access to any public lands.
Streets and Highways Code Section 954.5 provides the legal framework for terminating county road maintenance responsibility. The Board of Supervisors must find that a county road is unnecessary for the public convenience, after hearing evidence at a public hearing. All property owners served by the road must be notified of the hearing, and the road must be posted with notices of the hearing as well. Streets and Highway Code Section 954.5(b) provides that:
“A county highway may be deemed unnecessary for the public convenience on the basis of any of the following:
(1) The county highway does not provide the primary access to occupied properties.
(2) Traffic on the county highway is intermittent and of low volume.”
County Road 107 has been identified in the 2013 County of Yolo Bicycle Transportation Plan as a potential alignment for a Class 1 bikeway from West Sacramento to Solano County. Though this is listed as a low priority project in the plan, the Board of Supervisors would retain the right to resume maintenance of this road section in the future, and utilize it for such a use.
The applicant would be responsible to reimburse the County for the installation of new traffic warning signs necessary to appropriately notify approaching motorists of the gated and unmaintained road section, and for providing notice that the road is not maintained by the County (per Streets and Highways Code Section 954.5). The applicant will be required to provide a $7,500.00 work order deposit to the County toward this effort (Public Works Project No. PW2016-0017). Upon direction, staff would assemble an encroachment permit to the applicant for permitting the four gates, containing conditions for the applicant to: operate and maintain the gates going forward (per Streets and Highways Code Section 966), provide access to the aforementioned agencies, and reimburse the County for all traffic sign work (installation and on-going maintenance) associated with permitting the gates going forward.
The public was notified of the public hearing per Streets and Highways Code Section 954.5. Notices were mailed to all landowners adjacent to this segment of CR 107. Notice of the public hearing was also published in the Davis Enterprise newspaper two successive weeks prior to the hearing.
Once adopted, the attached resolution (Attachment F) terminating maintenance would be recorded (per Streets and Highways Code Section 8325), and the county’s maintenance would cease. |