Santa Cruz County Local Roads – a smooth path through paradise or a hell of a road?

Underfunding the road and culvert maintenance work on the 586 miles of County roads in unincorporated Santa Cruz County for more than four decades has created a backlog of deferred maintenance currently exceeding ¾ of a billion dollars which creates a hazard for residents. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The County has many demands on its limited resources. The County of Santa Cruz is systematically underfunded compared to county peers and statewide county averages. These funds are allocated to the County based on systems outside of the County’s control, such as nearly five decades of property tax regulations and recent State decisions to send online sales tax from local purchases to where warehouses are located. These circumstances restrict the County’s ability to provide services including road and culvert maintenance. Santa Cruz County has particularly difficult geography making it challenging to maintain local roads. The County was recently named the 15th most vulnerable county in the Country to landslides by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The County also faces vulnerabilities due to sea-level rise, as seen in damages from recent federal disasters where high tides and storm surge caused millions of dollars of damage to county infrastructure. Many local roads were originally not built for long-term public use, such as roads used for the logging industry. These roads, many built along waterways that make them more vulnerable, were under engineered and are susceptible to continued damage that further stresses the County’s resources.

Due to the large shortfall in funding, Santa Cruz County Department of Public Works adheres to the accepted practice promoted by the Federal Highway Administration and RTC of prioritizing pavement preservation over pavement restoration. Much of the public lacks awareness of this practice in the absence of a formally documented policy which impacts voter choices. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The County Department of Public Works uses industry-wide pavement management practices that results in the most efficient use of scarce resources. Information regarding pavement work is available on the County website (see Transportation & Roads (santacruzcountyca.gov), Completed County Resurfacing Projects 2018-2023 and Current Paving Projects). The Board of Supervisors is also regularly informed of pavement practices including annual proposals on how to spend Measure D funding. The most recent Measure D Plan was approved June 25th, 2024 (Measure D 5-Year Plan for Fiscal Year 2024-25). Additional information can be found within the Community Development and Infrastructure department budget (see Community Development and Infrastructure 2024-25 Proposed Budget).

The County road maintenance strategy differs by Supervisorial District leading to inconsistent road repair expectations among districts. This lack of a coordinated strategy leaves residents frustrated and with a sense of unfair treatment. __ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE _X_ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): General road maintenance consisting of vegetation management, surface patching, ditch cleaning and drainage maintenance is prescribed independent of political boundaries. County-wide pavement management funding is programed based on the percentage of road miles within each district. Some districts include cities with roads that fall outside of the County’s responsibility. The pavement maintenance strategy follows industry-wide best management practices consistently.

Storms of 2017 and 2023 caused significant road failures. Contributing factors were inadequate culvert, drainage ditch, and road surface maintenance which led to culvert failures and full road washouts leaving residents stranded or incurring significant delay. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): While it is agreed that the condition of county transportation infrastructure was a contributing factor to the damage caused by the storms of 2017 and 2023, this report has failed to adequately attribute factors such as age and the increasing pressure of climate change-driven disasters on the County’s transportation network. Since 2017, Santa Cruz County has experienced seven federally declared disasters that have caused hundreds of millions in damages to County infrastructure. This magnitude and frequency of disasters is unmatched in the County’s history. The 2017 and 2023 storm seasons each produced nearly seven times as much damage (measured by both estimated costs and number of sites) of an average storm season. This scale of impact is anticipated to continue, compromising the County’s ability to maintain its infrastructure. Asserting a causal connection between the County’s road maintenance program and the catastrophic failure of entire hillsides or overwhelmed culverts during unprecedented storms is baseless and wholly irresponsible. The failure of the Bates Creek culvert under Main Street in Soquel, for example, was not a maintenance issue but the result of a storm cell that stalled upriver of the culvert, sending a surge of water and debris that was without precedent through a system that was never designed for it in the first place.

The County of Santa Cruz has failed to ask unincorporated County voters to increase the funding of the Special District 9D (1-3) road assessment fee since its inception in 1998, which has resulted in a drastic loss of revenue for maintaining County roads. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The County has explored the possibility of asking voters for a Special District CSA 9D several times in the past and is currently making a more serious inquiry into to voters’ appetite for a proposed increase.

The County of Santa Cruz has failed to perform resurfacing maintenance on many of the smaller unincorporated local roads, resulting in higher failure rates and at least a 10 times increased maintenance cost when and if those roads are resurfaced. __ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE _X_ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The County utilizes an industry-wide best management practice that results in the most cost-effective method of maintaining the County road network within existing resources. As illustrated in this Completed County Resurfacing Projects report on the Department of Community Development and Infrastructure website, 85.5 miles of roads, many smaller local roads, were resurfaced between 2018 and 2023. The County resurfaced nearly one-sixth of its road network between 2018 and 2023. While there is more work to be done, the assertion that it has failed to perform this work on unincorporated local roads is entirely without merit.

Santa Cruz County's neglect of unincorporated local roads for many decades has led to an average Pavement Condition Index of less than 48 (as of 2019) which is 17 points below the statewide average. With the current funding level, it is projected to be 38 in 2024, and it is further projected to drop to 33 by 2028 which will leave the County in a position to experience higher catastrophic road failures. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The County has not neglected unincorporated local roads, as evidenced by $350 million spent on roads in the last seven fiscal years. This figure represents $580,000 per road mile, and is greater than the Sheriff’s Office’s entire operating budget for three years, would fund County Parks 20 times over, and is five times larger than the Measure S library bond. However, Santa Cruz County has unique challenges to improving our Pavement Condition Index, including: - Difficult geography with unstable land in the mountains and low-lying roads on the coast and south that are vulnerable to coastal flooding. - Roads in use that were originally not built for long-term public use, such as roads originally built by the logging industry. These roads were under- engineered and are vulnerable to damage. - Many roads were built adjacent to waterways, and are more suspectable to increased pressures from extreme weather and coastal flooding. - Systematic underfunding due to reasons beyond the County’s control including property tax and sales tax allocation regulations. - Already scarce funding being allocated to support priority emergency repair projects, including those that restore access to residential neighborhoods or the ability of public safety personnel to respond to critical life/safety incidents.

The County prioritizes preventive maintenance of roads in fair to good condition over road repair and reconstruction due to limited discretionary funds. As a result, many residents in local road areas will have to contend with very poor/failed roads into the foreseeable future. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Santa Cruz County Community Development & Infrastructure uses a pavement management industry-wide best management practice that results in the most efficient use of scarce resources to address road treatment. As stated above, the County made significant progress on local road maintenance including road resurfacing thanks to new sources of funding such as Measure D, and is studying whether residents would support additional road funding through CSA 9D.

The most recent LAFCO and County reports fail to provide detailed accounting of how 9D funds are being spent. The result is that taxpayers lack the information to ensure that generated funds are being used appropriately. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The accounting information regarding the use of CSA 9D funds are appropriate and in compliance with Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB). However, more programmatic information could be provided such as specific services and areas funds are being utilized for.

Minor progress has been made in seeking and securing additional funding sources. The additional funding is far short of what is needed to maintain and repair the road network. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Measure D (local half-cent sales tax) and Senate Bill (SB) 1 (State funding from vehicle registration fees/fuel taxes) are relatively new, having passed in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Measure K half-cent sales tax approved by voters on March 5, 2024, will provide a new source of funding for roads projects. As part of placing the measure on the ballot, the Board adopted a resolution supporting budget priorities for Measure K that includes $1 million for road repair and critical infrastructure. Public Works staff also continuously secure substantial grant funding to dedicate to County transportation projects. Recent examples of this are $16.5 million in state funding for the Soquel Drive Buffered Bike Lane & Congestion mitigation project and $14.2 million for several projects from the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission in the most recent consolidated grant program. We do not consider these substantial investments to be ‘minor,’ although we acknowledge existing revenues are not sufficient to maintain our road network at the highest levels.

Measure K funds go directly into the General Fund and road maintenance funding expenditures are only recommended. This may allow the funding to go to other needs. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): As part of placing the measure on the ballot, the Board adopted a resolution supporting budget priorities for Measure K that includes $1 million for road repair and critical infrastructure. The Board could choose to revisit these priorities and adjust budget allocations depending on needs and interests.