Martinez Gulch Road in Montana City is a neighborhood street. It also provides access to a place called “The Top of the World.”
“The Top of the World,” with its sweeping view of the Helena Valley, attracts mountain bikers and others, who are often dropped off by a Helena-based shuttle, as well as those who travel to and from the area at all hours of the day and night. Some of those visitors have left behind campfires, drug paraphernalia and trash, according to resident Ken Vivrette, who described the problem at a recent Jefferson County Commission meeting.
As a result of the recent increase in traffic, the road, which was chip sealed in 2009, has deteriorated and the property owners must shoulder the cost of maintenance, said Vivrette.
“This area is out of control,” said Vivrette.
Homeowners along Martinez Gulch Road recently asked that Jefferson County take over ownership of the road, but their request was denied.
The road is too narrow and the pitch too steep to be accepted into the county system, said Commissioner Bob Mullen.
This is not an uncommon issue in Jefferson County, and as development increases, these conflicts between recreationalists and property owners will likely increase as more than half of the county is public land, said Planner LaDana Hintz.
At one time, the county accepted all new roads in subdivisions, but it stopped that practice in the mid-1980s, as it could not keep up with maintaining miles and miles of roads, said Hintz, adding that that county records list 874 miles of county-maintained roads.
Instead, subdivision roads are dedicated to the public, but are maintained by the road users, said Hintz.
Today, there are mechanisms for funding road maintenance, such as a Rural Improvement District (RID) or a Rural Maintenance District (RMD). The fees from those districts are included as line items on the property tax bills for properties in those districts, said Hintz.
Martinez Road has an RMD in place, said Hintz, adding that Jefferson County has 16 such districts.
Rural Improvement Districts, with an RMD being a subset of that, are the result of a petition by property owners and established by the county commissioners for areas outside incorporated towns and cities following petitions by affected property owners.
RIDs are for major improvement projects, such as paving. RMDs allow for money to be collected for future work, such as fixing potholes, snowplowing and sanding, said Hintz.
Vivrette also asked about Martinez Gulch being turned into a private road, but Hintz said that the county’s subdivision regulations did not allow that.
Because Martinez Road has an RMD in place, it would be difficult to turn it into a private road and still demonstrate the public interest that is a requirement of an RMD, said Hintz.
If it was to become private, it would likely lose its RMD, she added.
Hintz said the county has also heard from residents in the Sheep Mountain subdivision off Lump Gulch Road in the Clancy area.
The neighborhood is surrounded by Bureau of Land Management land, and is part of the Clancy off-highway route, which sees heavy motorized recreational use as well as rock climbers, said Hintz.
However, the property owners are responsible for maintaining the roads to and through the BLM lands that surround the neighborhood, said Hintz.
The Sheep Mountain residents were asking if the county had any resources to help with road maintenance as usage there has also increased, said Hintz.
At the meeting, Hintz said that if the Commissioners approved the Martinez Gulch petition to make it a county road, it would have to do the same for the Sheep Mountain subdivision
“We can’t do it as a county,” she said.
Vivrette complained that the property owners along Martinez Gulch Road are maintainng the road for the public, and Mullen agreed that it was an unfair situation.
County Commission Chairman Leonard Wortman said that making Martinez Gulch a county road would not solve the undesirable activity at The Top of the World, as that could benefit from more patrolling by the Sheriff’s Office.
However, that becomes a manpower issue for the Sheriff’s Office, said Mullen.
Vivrette declined to comment further for the story.
Hintz said that in a perfect world, a county could take on all the roads, however the reality is that there would likely be few people that would want to pay the taxes required to support that level of service.
She said RIDs and RMDs are a way to insure that the money collected is spent in those districts for specific projects.
“It’s not a perfect system, but is one solution that has helped in some subdivisions,” she said.
