On Tuesday, half a dozen mostly retired residents on Sage Road spent their mornings filling potholes.
They are doing this because they say the county isn’t maintaining the road. These residents live in Permanent Road Division (PRD) Zone 13A.
It’s a 5.7-mile private road maintained by San Diego County through an assessment fee collected from homeowners living there. But Stephen Shrewbury said the county hasn’t maintained the road for many years.
“We’ve sent them detailed lists of all the potholes that need fixing. They’ve promised to do it. They haven’t done it,” he said.
Shrewbury is the president of Citizens for Sustainable PRD and Roads. He wants the county to do more to maintain the roads.
“This year, indeed, they’ve raised about $150,000 — slightly over — for maintenance, and we haven’t seen any maintenance,” he said.
The county’s role is to inspect, assess, prepare the cost estimates and work as a contractor for the PRD, county spokesperson Donna Durckel said.
The road needed roughly $6 million in repairs, including fixing the culverts and potholes. The current assessment fee is not enough to cover the repair costs, she said.
“The county is prohibited by law from expending public road funds (gas tax etc.) for the repair or maintenance of private roads which are not part of the county-managed road system,” Durckel said.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting on June 24, supervisors proposed a special tax on the November ballot to pay for the repairs and keep the PRD viable for the long term.
Shrewsbury agrees that the assessment fee should be raised, but said the county is rushing to put a special tax on the ballot to fill its coffers.
“We raise the money. Once we’ve raised it, it’s theirs,” he said. “They can do with it as they please. And they have not done anything really for many years in terms of maintenance.”
If voters in the PRD don’t pass the special tax, Durckel said the county may seek to dissolve the PRD. If that happens, homeowners would be responsible for maintaining their own road.
