QuickTake:

County officials say 124 miles of so-called “local access roads” are not their responsibility. Property owners who live along the public roads are stuck with the potholes — and costs when they take on the maintenance and repairs themselves.

Along this stretch of public road in Lane County, houses with front yards line the pavement. 

Like any other road, cars travel through Fairway Drive, which lies between Horn Lane and West Hilliard Lane, east of the railroad tracks and Northwest Expressway. Joshua Kielas lives here. Like others in scattered blocks throughout Eugene’s urban growth boundary and elsewhere in Lane County, he made a surprising discovery about two years ago after moving into the neighborhood a decade ago. 

Nobody wants to maintain his street.

Kielas’ street is among 124 miles of roads across Lane County, streets in the Eugene area and in rural areas, which are in a no-man’s land of sorts. They are public roads, yet no government agency claims responsibility for their maintenance.

This puts homeowners like Kielas and others on the hook for maintenance — regardless of whether they can afford the cost of asphalt along a block. It can catch homeowners by surprise — often years after they buy their homes and ask about a road repair, only to learn that they’re responsible.

“It’s this very strange situation where you bought your house, thinking it was just any other regular situation,” Kielas said. “It’s totally crazy.”

‘Potholes popping up every year’

Lane County calls them “local access roads.” Their origins can vary. At one point, decades ago, the roads may have only served a house or two, until development sprouted up around them.

Regardless of the reason, local access roads put Kielas and others in the same bad spot. They cannot yet convince Lane County officials to put local access roads into their roster for future maintenance. And if the residents don’t shell out thousands of dollars for maintenance, they can only watch the roads deteriorate in the years ahead. 

Kielas has filled up a pothole that was several inches deep on the public road in front of his house. 

“It’s just alligator cracks all over the place, and potholes popping up every year,” he said. 

Kielas may be tackling that do-it-yourself maintenance for a long time.

Lane County commissioners heard a report on local access roads Tuesday, June 9. Commissioners were sympathetic to the plight of homeowners faced with onerous road maintenance needs.

But a solution is unlikely to come quickly — or cheaply. 

In all, there are 514 local access roads totaling 124 miles. Of those, 167 local access roads are in urban growth boundaries, like where Kielas lives. Local access roads stretch from Eugene to Blue River. 

Technically, the county could spend funds on local access roads under state law if certain conditions were met. One would be if an emergency arose that made the work necessary.  Another would be if the county road official recommended the expenditure, the public use justified that, and county commissioners authorized the work.

‘A heartbreaking conversation’

To be clear, local access roads are not marked or labeled. Casual travelers may not realize when they cross from a county-maintained road to a city-maintained road or local access road. 

That’s often why people are surprised when they make the discovery. 

“It’s a heartbreaking conversation to have,” Commissioner Heather Buch said at the meeting regading local access roads or LARs. “I’ve never been a fan of LARs. I don’t think they should exist anymore.”

Property owners can petition the county to accept the roads. But that process requires 60% of owners along the road to agree, among other county conditions.

Along Kielas’ block, people have mixed reactions.

“Some people are like, ‘We like the potholes, it slows the traffic down,’” he said. “Other people are like, ‘We need to fix the streets.’ Other people are like, ‘If I had to fix the street, I’d lose my home because I can’t afford it.’”

The county’s not going to upgrade the roads anytime soon. 

The county’s initial estimates for costs to evaluate, upgrade and maintain the roads are steep: $88.5 million for reconstruction in urban Eugene areas and $3.3 million in rural Blue River. That estimate is for 13 miles of all the local access roads.

Still, that includes upgrades that the roads often don’t have such as gutters, culvert repairs and other improvements that the property owners aren’t seeking. 

Kielas and others, like Mary Leoni, who lives a few blocks away along a local access road, say they don’t want special treatment — just road maintenance like everyone else in a tight economy. 

“People buy here because they can afford it,” she said. “There aren’t people here that have extra $30,000 to pay.”

‘A prime example of an inequity’

Liz Porter, another Eugene-area resident along a local access road, said it’s about equity. 

“I think this is a prime example of an inequity,” Porter said. “I want to be treated the same way every other citizen of Eugene and of Lane County is treated.”

Commissioners didn’t take any action Tuesday, but discussed possible steps, including simplifying the application process to get a road accepted. Commissioner and Chair Ryan Ceniga said he’ll also check with Eugene city officials about scheduling a joint city-and-county work session. 

Commissioner David Loveall suggested the county look for ways to keep the roads drivable through other means, such as maintenance without expensive upgrades or public-private partnerships. 

“That’s not something we’re going to turn over tomorrow and fix all these roads, not for $93 million and that’s all for first-class roads,” Loveall said. “I’m saying, ‘Is there something that we can shoot for that’s C-plus? You know, my son, when he was an engineering student, said ‘C’s get degrees.’”

For now, Kielas and his neighbors will have to make do with the status quo while hoping the government will take responsibility. And until that happens, the roads will continue to deteriorate, one way or another — even with potholes filled. 

“My guess is that what will happen is eventually they’ll just start to resemble gravel roads,” he said. “People will fill potholes until it just becomes silly because the whole road is falling apart, and then it’ll just kind of degrade into those roads where it’s mostly gravel, with little pieces of pavement, where you can be like, ‘Oh yeah, this used to be a road, right?’ My guess is that that’s kind of where we’re headed.”

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.