The right thing — 05/08/08

Sat, May 17 2008

— Members of the Boyd County Fiscal Court had no legal obligation to repair two roads in the Lakinview Heights Subdivision and could even be accused of setting a bad precedent by doing so. But the three commissioners and Boyd County Judge-Executive William “Bud” Stevens are making the minimal repairs to Tristen Way and Taylor Lane for the right reasons. Sometimes even a bad precedent is the right thing to do.
Those who purchased property in the subdivision thought they were buying a small portion of the new upscale subdivision in the county. While the roads in that subdivision still were under construction, the buyers were promised wide, paved streets that would become part of the county’s road system.
But that promise was never kept. Well before the work was completed, the developer — the Franz Group and its various subsidiaries, including Tri-Level LLC and Sherwood Heights LLC — collapsed under a mountain of financial debt and work on the subdivision came to a halt. That left those who had already purchased property in Lakinview Heights living on narrow, unpaved and mostly ungraveled roads that were far less than what was promised.
When residents of the subdivision earlier appealed to the fiscal court for help in repairing their roads, court members said there was nothing they could do. Like most area counties, Boyd County has specific standards new roads must meet before they can become part of the county road system. The partially finished roads in Lakinview Highs fell far short of meeting those standards.
We support the county’s road standards. Boyd County should not be in the business of building new roads for subdivisions. Nor should the county accept substandard roads as part of its road system. To do so would be simply to add to county’s road maintenance costs and divert money that should be used to maintain roads that already are part of the county’s system.
However, for the county to completely ignore the needs of residents who were victims of a failed venture would be, well, heartless. County officials rightly called the deteriorating Tristen Way and Taylor Lane “a public safety issue” and agreed to make only those repairs necessary to assure those living on the streets could be reached by emergency vehicles. By making it a public safety issue, the county may be avoiding setting a precedent that allows future developments to avoid meeting road standards.
By doing some leveling and adding gravel to the two roads, they still will fall short of meeting the standards necessary to become part of the county road system, but at least they will be a little better than they now are. One hopes that the entire subdivision eventually will be purchased by another developer that will build the roads as promised. That would help those new living in the subdivision get a return on their investment and add newly developed property to the county’s tax rolls.
However, until some other entity assumes control of this failed development, those living there will have to be satisfied with gravel roads and unfulfilled promises.