New rules for new subdivisions in Berwick

BERWICK — New residential developments in the town will have new rules to abide by, including requiring concrete streets instead of asphalt roads. But the Town Council instructed town officials to further investigate the durability of asphalt streets to determine whether the town should allow them.
The Town Council approved an ordinance Tuesday to amend, change and re-enact sections of the town’s subdivision regulations with the caveat of having the town attorney and town engineer, within 90 days, present the council with the results of their investigation into the feasibility of asphalt streets and also what warranties, identified in the ordinance as maintenance bonds, are appropriate for streets in new subdivisions.
In April, Mayor Louis Ratcliff provided The Daily Review with the proposed changes to the subdivision rules which included requiring new streets extending from existing streets to be of the same width and material and removing the allowance of asphalt streets in new developments.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Councilman Damon Robison said he had concerns over the ordinance, which would make the town’s already high standards even higher.
Robison believes raising those standards even higher elevates the cost of doing business in Berwick and will make the town an unaffordable place for many people to live, he said.
Robison said that requiring all streets in new residential developments to be paved with concrete is not practical, though he would like to see streets built with concrete. However, private industry should be able to decide whether to build with concrete or asphalt, Robison said.
Councilman Troy Lombardo stated that the town doesn’t have the equipment, personnel or accessibility to asphalt to be able to maintain asphalt streets. Most of the residential developments built in the past 40 to 50 years in Berwick have concrete streets anyway and haven’t needed much repair, Lombardo said.
Town Engineer Reid Miller said keeping a steady traffic load on asphalt roads continually re-compacts the asphalt, which is good for the stability of the road. Asphalt roads can last 25 to 30 years, but how durable those roads are depend on how the road is built in addition to many other factors, Miller said.
Though concrete and asphalt are both used to build hard surface roads, they are affected by different factors, Miller said.
Geotechnical investigations of the sub-surface materials used under the streets are also important in order to determine the ability of the roads to withstand the projected traffic flow, Miller said.
Mayor Pro-Tem Jacki Ackel said she would be willing to allow for the use of asphalt to build roads if those roads have to follow certain standards.
Ratcliff said he proposed requiring new streets to be concrete because the subdivisions that have been in place for many years have concrete streets and have only needed minimal repairs. Also, the city has the equipment to do such repairs when needed, Ratcliff said.
Robison was also concerned about requiring a developer to provide a three-year warranty, in the form of maintenance bonds, for the construction of streets in new residential developments, he said. The typical industry standard is to provide a one-year warranty, Robison said.
The ordinance requires that a contractor would have to provide a one-year maintenance bond on the construction of streets for the total cost of road construction. Furthermore, the ordinance states the developer must provide an additional maintenance bond on behalf of the town in the amount of 25 percent of the total cost of road construction for the second and third years after construction.
A separate ordinance the council passed in March to put a temporary moratorium on new residential development in Berwick expires June 1. The subdivision regulation changes will only apply to new residential developments.
The new subdivision regulations will not apply to the development of Fairview Park and River Bend subdivisions, which the council gave preliminary approval to in April.
Robison said Fernand Privat, who developed Fairview Park subdivision, told town officials he would not have chosen to develop in Berwick if he had to build concrete streets instead of asphalt ones.
Lombardo believes the town’s high subdivision standards are the reason that developers, such as Privat, chose to develop in Berwick in the first place, he said.
Lombardo was willing to consider the engineering analysis of asphalt streets to decide whether some combination of materials, including asphalt, would provide roads that would last as long as concrete streets, he said.
The new subdivision rules also require a developer to provide a drainage impact study for proposed developments. The council approved allowing the mayor to grant an exemption for a developer to submit the drainage impact study if the town’s building inspector certifies that the proposed development won’t significantly impact drainage.
Upon Robison’s request for an amendment to the proposed subdivision rule changes, the council approved amending the ordinance to revert back to the subdivision regulation already in place, which requires the town, instead of the developer, to pay any additional cost to furnish larger water main lines, when deemed necessary for future development.
In other business, the council
—Approved an ordinance to set the town’s 2015 millage rate of 18.12 mills, which continues the same rate already in place.
—Approved an ordinance to set the town’s 2015 drainage fee at $25 per acre of land.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com