December 2018
Message from the WPOA Road Chairman.
I am sending a report for posting on the WCN website for property owners in Woodcreek North Subdivision. If you are unsure if you live in WCN, there is a map on the WCN website that shows the boundaries of the two intermingled subdivisions, Woodcreek North and Wimberly Springs.
Our subdivision is quickly filling in as new houses are built. There are many new residents. I thought it would be helpful to inform the new residents, as well as others, of the current road status. In my report I have tried to present information as best as I know it. Others, who may have additional knowledge, are welcome to provide provide additional information.
I have owned property here since 2011. I moved here from Pearland, Tx, permanently in 2012 after retirement from Brazoria County, a coastal county of about 364,000 located on the western boundary of Galveston and the southern boundary of Harris.
I served one term on the board previously.
I am not a road engineer. I was asked to chair the road committee because I have exposure to road construction as county purchasing director in charge of procurement and contracts which included bids for road construction.
I hope the report clarifies our road situation.
For reference purposes, I divided the report into sections noted by Roman Numerals.
Regards,
Charles Crook
ROAD REPORT FOR WOODCREEK NORTH
I. Current state of roads:
Most of our roads are in need of repair. Our roads were privately built starting in the in the 1970s and many of our roads are still privately owned. We, as property owners, own the roads except for those roads that have been turned over to the county. The county maintains only those roads they own. We are responsible for the roads we own. When private developers built the roads, they were not built to county standards. This has affected their longevity. Most of our roads are substandard and need repair.
II. Financial Considerations:
Money is the single most important factor influencing road repair, so I will start with an overview of road financing. I will include some background information, history and economic factors. The road maintenance budget comes from dues collected by the POA.
Many of our sections were planned and the deed restrictions and rules written in 1974. Subsequent sections basically followed the original model established by the original documents with some variations.
POA fees were set by the developer based on their calculations of fees required for the development to be self sufficient and maintain roads and provide services required in the subdivision. The calculations were based on financial conditions, dollar value etc. based on conditions in 1974. The developers determined that a yearly fee of $ 120.00 in 1974 was sufficient for the POA to maintain roads and provide amenities, once they (the developers) were no longer involved. Bankruptcy and several economic downturns ended developer involvement many years ago. There were several developers over the years, as I understand.
The effects of inflation have decreased the value of the 1974 dollar significantly since then as Emory Jones, our current POA president recently pointed out. Here are some numbers according to a net calculator using US Govt. CPI data (Source-Dollar Times Inflation Calculator): 100 dollars in 1974 equals 18.74 in todays dollars on the day I did the calculations on Dec 2, 2018. Essentially, we are dealing with less than 1/5 of the purchasing power that was originally intended when the subdivision financial plan was conceived.
As you can see, we face a definite financial disadvantage that limits proper functioning of our road repair operations as well as our POA.
In addition to the reduced value of the dollar, the POA was recently involved in a costly lawsuit. The road repair budget was significantly reduced due to lawyer fees. This caused setbacks that still affect us today.
III. Current Strategy and plan:
For the last several years, despite various setbacks such as lawsuits, objections by some residents and board members and financial limits, the POA has been pursuing turning over road ownership gradually to the county. Fortunately for us, our county commissioners have been willing to work with us. Counties may assume ownership of private roads, but are not required.
The advantages of county road ownership are obvious. The county maintains our roads using tax dollars. The county has resources that vastly exceed ours. We all pay for it through our taxes. The POA can expend their POA dues on other needs if the county maintains roads.
The county has specification requirements when assuming road ownership. Roads assumed by the county must connect to current county roads. The county will not skip a section and assume ownership of a road that is not connected to a current county road. Think of the county road systems as a climbing vine on a wall. It will extend itself only by growing new branches from current branches.
Private roads assumed by the county must meet county road specifications. Most of our roads don’t. That’s where the major expense is. We hire the county to repair and improve roads for incorporation into the county road system.
The more miles of roads we can turn over, the more funds we will have. The goal is to eventually turn over all of the county roads to the county.
Each year our focus is to keep the roads “passible” while devoting as much money as we can to bringing as many miles as possible to county standards so that they may be turned over. This means that many roads are in disrepair. If we devoted all of our funds strictly to repairing our roads rather than turning them over to the county, then we would never make headway. Eventually, our entire system would become non functional.
IV. Challenges:
Some sections are a bigger challenge than others. Many streets in Eagle Rock are very narrow. To be assumed by the county, they must be widened significantly. This will require some property owners to cede some of their property to the county for right of way. This can be a complicated process.
Some parts of Eagle Rock have been annexed by the City of Wimberley. Normally, a city maintains roads within their city limits. As I understand, not so in this case. Wimberley unfortunately chose to annex in such a way that they will collect taxes from Eagle Rock residents but will not maintain their roads, allowing the city to realize the advantage of collecting tax money but avoiding the expense of providing a service. This is unfortunate.
Section 8 is the section roughly circumscribed by Persimmon, Mesquite, Acacia and Chaparrall will be a long-term project. Road engineers inspected this area last year. The underlayment of the road is inadequate. Unlike most of our other roads, this road will require extensive reconstruction. The estimated cost of rebuilding these roads to county standards is estimated at between 800 and 900 thousand dollars in today’s dollars. Repair will take many years.
Our entire road budget for 2019 is currently estimated at $80,000.
IV. Conclusion:
The private roads maintained by the WPOA are all in need of repair. Current income streams do not allow proper maintenance of all private roads in our system.
Our plan is to turn as many miles of road as possible over to the county. Several roads are designated each year for rebuilding and assumption by the county. We strive to keep other roads passible. We cannot possibly rebuild all roads to county standards at once. Our goal is eventual absorption of all roads by the county. It will be a long process.
According to the last road chairman, about 50% of our roads have been turned over to the county.
I hope this has clarified our road situation for residents that are unfamiliar. We have many new residents who may be unaware of the machinations of our road history.
I plan to meet with the county road engineer in a few weeks and finalize the road plan for 2019. I will try to provide information concerning road plans soon after.
Thank you,
Charles Crook