Boulder County commissioners have included two of the leading opponents of the county’s controversial subdivision roads rehabilitation program on that program’s advisory panel.
One of the seven residential subdivision homeowners the commissioners named on Thursday to the seven-member Subdivision Paving Local Improvement District Advisory Committee is Vince Hirsch, vice chairman of Boulder County Fairness in Road Maintenance.
One of the three subdivision homeowners the commissioners selected to be alternate members of the new advisory panel — people who may be called upon when one of the seven regular committee members can’t make it to a meeting — is Chuck Wibby, chairman of Boulder County FIRM.
FIRM is an organization that fought the county’s proposal — a plan rejected by subdivision voters in last November’s election — to form a property-tax-supported Public Improvement District to fund the rehabilitation of paved roads in unincorporated parts of Boulder County.
FIRM also opposes the alternative plan that the commissioners have proceeded to implement — the creation of a Subdivision Paving LID that’s assessing the owners of about 10,900 properties the bulk of the costs of rehabilitating, reconstructing and repaving subdivision roads over the coming 15 years.
Wibby and Hirsch also are among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Boulder County’s legal authority to create the LID and bill subdivision property owners for the paving district’s projects.
During Thursday’s discussion of their choices for the advisory committee appointments, Commissioners Elise Jones, Deb Gardner and Cindy Domenico acknowledged that they were knowingly including critics and skeptics of the LID’s approach to paying for paved road repairs.
Jones said, however, that that will ensure there’s a “diversity of opinion” on the panel.
Gardner said if people with differing ideas get together and sit down in the same room to discuss a problem, “you’re going to get up with a better solution.”
Told of the commissioners’ comments, Wibby said in a Friday interview that “I’m glad they said that.”
Said Wibby, a resident of the South Meadow-Gunbarrel Green subdivision: “All along, everybody’s who’s been involved in this process agrees that the roads need to be fixed. The dispute has always been on how they’re going to pay for it.”
Wibby said he thought he and Hirsch could offer “some advice, suggestions … on how to get the job done as quickly as possible and at the least cost.”
Said Hirsch, who lives in the Boulder Heights subdivision:: “The lawsuit and the LID process the county is undertaking are two separate items.”
Hirsch said in an email that if he and the other plaintiffs get the court to overturn the LID, the county would still need “strong, knowledgeable guidance on how to conduct pavement management. Our county needs to conduct a proactive, responsible road maintenance approach that prolongs the life of our roads and minimizes future cost.”
If the court allows the county to proceed with the paving district, Hirsch said, “I want to ensure that the county uses LID funds effectively and efficiently. I hope we have a little more vision and address the long-term picture rather than just the immediate needs of our roads.”
County commissioners’ advisory committee appointees also included several subdivision homeowners who’d participated in a working group that helped the county craft the PID and LID road work options last year. They include Dick Piland, a resident of Niwot’s Overbrook subdivision; Peter King-Smith, a resident of the Pine Brook Hills subdivision; Richard Blanchette, a resident of the Crestview Estates subdivision; and Jeff Wagener, an Eldorado Springs resident. Piland and King-Smith will be committee members, while Blanchette and Jeff Wagener will serve as alternate members.
Others appointed to the main advisory committee, and the subdivisions where they own properties, include: Kim Hedberg, the Valle Del Rio subdivision; Robert Loveman, the Pine Brook Hills subdivision; Timm Morrison, the Paul Nor Estates subdivision; and Robert Schuetze, the Gunbarrel Green subdivision.
John Fryar can be reached at 303-684-5211 or jfryar@times-call.com.
