Please contact the Road Division for more information when submitting a road acceptance application.
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to establish the procedure and criteria for the Lyon County Board of Commissioners to accept non-maintained roads into the Lyon County Road Maintenance System.
The procedure and criteria for acceptance into the Lyon County Road Maintenance System is as follows:
- Type of right-of-way/road – The three primary methods roadways are established are:
- Dedicated Right-of-way – The roadway is owned by or dedicated to the County for purposes of a road
- Prescriptive Right-of-way – The land may or may not be owned by the County, but the public has used the road on a continuous basis and a prescriptive right-of-way is recognized by court order or another basis.
- Access easement – An easement granted to a private individual for access to their property across another’s property and for an individual’s use and benefit.
Lyon County will only consider roads that are constructed in a dedicated right-of-way or prescriptive right-of-way for acceptance for maintenance. The type of roadway will b determined by the Lyon County Road Division Manager. The burden for establishing the type of roadway and providing supporting documentation is on the applicant and the Road Division is not required to research documents, survey or perform other activities to determine the type of roadway.
Roads found to be within an access easement may not be considered for maintenance.
- The Roadway must have met Lyon County standards when it was constructed. If not, the road must be brought up to those standards before it can be considered for acceptance.
If the developer or property owner agreed not to offer the roadway for acceptance for maintenance as a condition of a waiver, the roadway cannot be considered for acceptance for maintenance until the roadway is brought up to the County standards required at the time the roadway was constructed.
The fact that the road was constructed or brought up to standards at the time it was built does not guarantee acceptance into the maintenance system, but is only one factor to be considered by the Road Division and the Board of County Commissioners. Even if an applicant or property owners improve the roadway, the Road Division and Board of County Commissioners are not required to aaccept the roadway into the Lyon County Road Maintenance System.
- If the Road Division’s Manager finds that the application meets the first two criteria, the Road Division Manager shall make a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners. The road and the Road Division recommendation shall be included on the list of roads presented to the Board of County Commissioners. This list will be presented to the Commission twice a year, at the second meetings of March and September.
- The Road Division Manager’s decision of whether the roadway meets the first two criteria may be appealed to the County Engineer. If the Road Division Manager, or County Engineer if the decision is appealed, determine that the roadway does not meet the first two criteria, the roadway will not be included on the list for consideration by the County Commissioners.
- The Road Division Manager’s recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners should consider several factors including, but not limited to, traffic volumes, the number of improved parcels on the road, zoning along the road, zoning for current land use and future development, the length of the road, the cost/benefit analysis of the financial impact on the County’s road budget, and the road classification
Road classifications will be used to determine which roads will have priority in the selection for maintenance by the County. The type and use of road will determine the type and amount of the maintenance that will be provided.
Road classifications are:
- Arterial – medium-speed, medium-capacity roadways that provide intra-community travel access to the county-wide road system.
- Collector – relatively low speed, low volume roadways that provide circulation within and between neighborhoods. Collectors usually serve short trips and are intended for collecting trips from local roadways and distributing to the arterial network.
- Local – relatively low-speed, low volume roadways that allow local neighborhood trips to gain access to collector roadways.
- The Board of County Commissioners will determine whether the roadway should be accepted into the Lyon County Road Maintenance System. The Board of County Commissioners may consider information presented at the meeting, the Road Division recommendation, any combination of the factors considered in the Road Division recommendation, and any other available information. The Board of County Commissioners has the discretion to either accept or deny the road being placed in the Lyon County Road Maintenance System. The decision of the Board of County Commissioner is final and may not be appealed.
- The Board of County Commissioners and the Road Division Manager have the sole authority to determine the level of maintenance for any road accepted into the Lyon County Road Maintenance System.
- Any person, entity or Lyon County resident may request that a road be considered for acceptance into the Lyon County Road Maintenance System. The application must be complete with any necessary supporting documentation and shall be submitted to the Road Division. The application must be received by December 31st and June 30th, respectively, to be considered for the March and September Board of County Commissioner meetings. The responsibility for completing the application and providing supporting documentation is on the applicant.
- If an application is rejected by the Board of County Commissioners, it will not be reconsidered by the Road Division for a period of one year from the Board of County Commissioner decision, unless the applicant can show changed circumstances justifying reconsideration.
- The Road Division may request at the same Board of County Commission meetings that certain roads be removed from the Lyon County Road Maintenance System. The Road Division shall provide the reasons why the roadway should be removed from the Road Maintenance System. The Board of County Commissioners has the discretion to remove the roadway from the Road Maintenance System.
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