[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the Town of Caledonia as indicated
in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 9-10-1981 by L.L. No. 2-1981]
[Amended 12-14-2000 by L.L. No. 3-2000]
No civil actions shall be maintained against the Town or Town Superintendent
of Highways for damages or injuries to person or property sustained by reason
of any highway, bridge, street, sidewalk, crosswalk or culvert being defective,
out of repair, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed unless written notice of such
defective, unsafe, dangerous, or obstructed condition of such highway, bridge,
street, sidewalk, crosswalk or culvert was actually given to the Town Clerk
or Town Superintendent of Highways, and there was a failure or neglect within
a reasonable time after the giving of such notice to repair or remove the
defect, danger or obstruction complained of. No such action shall be maintained
for damages or injuries to person or property sustained solely in consequence
of the existence of snow or ice upon any highway, bridge, street, sidewalk,
crosswalk or culvert, unless written notice thereof, specifying the particular
place, was actually given to the Town Clerk or Town Superintendent of Highways
and there was failure or neglect to cause such snow or ice to be removed or
to make the place otherwise reasonably safe within a reasonable time after
the receipt of such notice.
No civil action will be maintained against the Town and/or the Town
Superintendent of Highways of the Town for damages or injuries to person or
property sustained by reason of any defect in the sidewalks of the Town or
in consequence of the existence of snow or ice upon any of its sidewalks,
unless such sidewalks have been constructed or are maintained by the Town
or the Superintendent of Highways of the Town pursuant to statute, nor shall
any action be maintained for damages or injuries to person or property sustained
by reason of such defect or in consequence of such existence of snow or ice
unless written notice thereof, specifying the particular place, was actually
given to the Town Clerk of the Town or to the Town Superintendent of Highways
of the Town and there was a failure or neglect to cause such defect to be
remedied, such snow or ice to be removed or to make the place otherwise reasonably
safe within a reasonable time after the receipt of such notice.
[Amended 12-14-2000 by L.L. No. 3-2000]
The Town Superintendent of Highways shall transmit in writing to the
Town Clerk within five days after the receipt thereof all written notices
received pursuant to this article and Subdivision 2 of § 65-a of
the Town Law. The Town Clerk shall cause all written notices received pursuant
to this article and Subdivision 2 of § 65-a of the Town Law, to
be presented to the Town Board within five days of the receipt thereof or
at the next succeeding Town Board meeting, whichever shall be sooner.
[Amended 8-11-1994 by L.L. No. 4-1994]
The Town Clerk shall keep an indexed record, in a separate book, of
all written notices which he shall receive of the existence of a defective,
unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition in or upon, or of an accumulation
of ice or snow upon any Town highway, bridge, culvert or sidewalk, which record
shall state the date of receipt of the notice, the nature and location of
the condition stated to exist and the name and address of the person from
whom the notice is received. All such written notices shall be indexed according
to the location of the alleged defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed
condition or the location of accumulated snow or ice. The record of each notice
shall be preserved for a period of five years after the date it is received.
[Amended 12-14-2000 by L.L. No. 3-2000]
Nothing contained in this article shall be held to repeal or modify
or waive any existing requirement or statute of limitations but, on the contrary,
shall be held to be additional requirements to the rights to maintain such
action. Nothing contained herein shall be held to modify any existing rule
of law relative to the question of contributory negligence, nor to impose
upon the Town, its officers and employees and/or any of its improvement districts
any greater duty or obligations than that it shall keep its streets, sidewalks
and public places in a reasonably safe condition for public use and travel.
This article shall supersede in its application to the Town of Caledonia Subdivisions
1 and 3 of § 65-a of the Town Law.
[Adopted 8-13-1998 by L.L. No. 4-1998]
The Town of Caledonia hereby enacts this article for the purpose of
reducing the cost of maintaining and rehabilitating low-volume Town roads
while providing that such roads when used in a manner consistent with the
road classification will be safe for the users thereof. While there are generally
accepted standards for the design, maintenance and rehabilitation of high-volume
roads, there are no such comparable standards for roads over which a relatively
low volume of traffic passes. In the event there can be a savings in the cost
of maintaining or rehabilitating a road that has relatively few vehicles traveling
over it, the money saved could be spent on more intense maintenance of roads
over which travel is greater. The result could be greater overall safety for
the general public. Since the Town resources to be expended for highways is
limited, it is incumbent upon the Town to utilize such limited resources in
a manner which targets expenditures on the most heavily traveled roads. It
is for such purposes that this article is enacted.
In 1986 the New York State Legislature created the Local Road Classification
Task Force (Chapter 708 of the Laws of 1986). Such task force was charged
with developing alternative guidelines for classifying town and county roads
in rural areas according to principal uses and traffic volume. The task force
consisted of the Commissioner of Transportation or his designee, the Dean
of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of Cornell University or his
designee, four rural town highway superintendents, three rural county highway
superintendents and three rural business people. Such task force, after considerable
discussions and upon hearing many experts, prepared local road classification
guidelines and issued a report in December of 1988. In December of 1989 the
task force issued "A Manual: Guidelines For Rural Town and County Roads" to
facilitate the use of the local classification by local officials. In July
of 1990, the Legislative Commission on Rural Resources worked with the Senate,
Assembly, State Department of Transportation and Governor's office to establish
a New York State Local Roads Research and Coordination Council (see Article
16-B Executive Law and Chapters 565 and 652 of the Laws of 1990). The Council
was empowered to work with the Department of Transportation to:
A.
Promote the training of municipal officials and employees
to encourage the utilization of innovative and cost-cutting procedures as
well as more efficient highway maintenance and consolidation methods;
B.
Encourage the coordination of local road maintenance
and storage facilities;
C.
Encourage towns and counties to contract with each other
for the maintenance of local roads and bridges;
D.
Develop a minimum maintenance road classification addressing
repair and service standards for low-volume roads, as well as procedures to
be followed by local governments for designing minimum maintenance roads within
their communities. Accordingly, the Council revised the 1989 Local Roads Classification
Task Force Report and published it for use by rural towns and county governments
on December 30, 1992.
The Town Superintendent of highways, in the event he (or she) finds it to be in the best interests of the Town, may classify one or more roads or portions thereof as one of the following types of roads: low-volume collector; residential access; farm access; resource/industrial access, agricultural land access; recreational land access or minimum maintenance road. However, no road shall be finally determined to be a minimum maintenance road until so designated by the Town Board by local law. The classification of any road or designated portion thereof shall be consistent with the definitions of such type of road as set forth in § 111-15 of this article. Upon the classification of any road or portion thereof by the Town Highway Superintendent, such designation shall be filed in the office of the Town Clerk and a copy shall be presented to each member of the Town Board by the Town Clerk within 10 days of such filing. Such designation shall be accompanied by a finding by the Town Superintendent which shall contain the information upon which the Highway Superintendent relied when designating such road or portion thereof. The Town Board may at a Town Board meeting following the filing of such designation adopt a resolution accepting such designation except that the designation of a minimum maintenance road shall be by local law as provided in § 111-9 of this article. Upon the adoption of such resolution, the road or portion thereof shall be classified as determined by the Town Highway Superintendent, and such Town Highway Superintendent shall take into consideration the guidelines for maintaining such road or portion thereof as set forth in § 111-15 of this article.
Notwithstanding the provisions of § 111-8 of this article, no road or portion thereof shall be designated as a minimum maintenance road except after following the procedure set forth in §§ 111-9 through 111-11, inclusive.
A.
The Town Superintendent of Highways shall submit to the
Town Board a recommendation that a road or portion thereof should be designated
as a minimum maintenance road. No road or portion thereof shall be recommended
as a minimum maintenance road by the Town Superintendent of Highways unless
the traffic volume is less than 50 vehicles per day as determined by the Town
Superintendent of Highways and such road or portion thereof is an agricultural
land access road or a recreational land access road, and that such road or
portion thereof does not provide farm centers of operation and/or year-round
residences with principal motor vehicle access to goods and services necessary
for the effective support of such farms and/or year-round residences.
B.
The Town upon the approval of such recommendation shall
by local law designate such road or portion thereof as a minimum maintenance
road.
C.
At least 10 days before the public hearing on such local
law, written notice of such hearing shall be served by certified mail upon
every owner of real property, as determined by the latest completed assessment
roll, abutting such road or portion thereof to be designated a minimum maintenance
road.
E.
No road or portion thereof, once designated a minimum
maintenance road, shall be determined to have been abandoned pursuant to the
provisions of Subdivision 1 of § 205 of the Highway Law until at
least six years have elapsed since the termination of the designation of said
road or portion thereof as a minimum maintenance road.
F.
Prior to any public hearing relating to the adoption
of a local law designating a low-volume road or portion thereof as a minimum
maintenance road, the Town Board shall issue findings that such road or portion
thereof should be designated a minimum maintenance road.
(1)
Such findings shall include but not be limited to:
(a)
The volume and type of motor vehicle traffic on such
road;
(b)
A determination that the property owners of land abutting
the road shall continue to have reasonable access to their property.
(c)
A determination that the users of the road or portion
thereof traveling at a reasonable and prudent speed, under the circumstances,
shall not be placed in a hazardous situation; and
(d)
A determination that such road or portion thereof does not constitute a farm access as defined pursuant to § 111-15 of this article.
(e)
A determination that such road or portion thereof does
not constitute access to a year-round residence.
(2)
Such findings shall be on file in the office of the Town
Clerk and be available for public inspection for at least 60 days before the
public hearing on the local law.
A copy of the findings in § 111-9 shall also be sent to the Board of Education of the central school, Town and County Planning Boards in which each road or road segment is located. Such school board and planning boards shall review the findings and, within 45 days, file with the Town Clerk a resolution recommending such road designation or, in the event such designation is not recommended, the school board or planning board shall set forth in a resolution the reasons for not recommending such designation. The Town Board may, by resolution, accept, accept in part or reject the recommendations of either the school board or Town or County Planning Board prior to any vote upon the proposed local law. In the event the school board, County Planning Board or Town Planning Board takes no action upon the findings issued by the Town Board, the Town Board shall consider such inaction as a recommendation for the proposed minimum maintenance designation.
Appropriate signs shall be placed on a minimum maintenance road. Such
signs shall notify and advise motorists of the need to exercise caution when
traveling such road and shall conform to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control
Devices. Properly posted signs shall be prima facie evidence that adequate
notice of a minimum maintenance road designation has been given to the public.
Minimum maintenance roads shall be maintained in a manner determined by the Town Highway Superintendent to be consistent with the volume and type of traffic traveling on such road. Normal road maintenance practices, such as but not limited to paving, patching, blading, dragging or mowing, may be done less frequently depending upon the existing condition and use of the road, as shall be determined by the Town Superintendent of Highways. The guidelines for the method and manner of maintaining a minimum maintenance road are set forth in § 111-15 of this article.
Any person or persons owning or occupying real property abutting a road
or portion thereof which has been designated a minimum maintenance road may
petition the Town Board to discontinue the designation of such road or portion
thereof as a minimum maintenance road. Such petition shall be filed with the
Clerk of the Town. Such petition shall identify the road or portion thereof
to be discontinued as a minimum maintenance road and set forth the reasons
for such discontinuance. The Town Board shall hold a public hearing upon such
petition within 30 days after its receipt; at least 10 days' public notice
shall be given prior to the conduct of such public hearing. At least 10 days
before the public hearing on such petition, written notice of such public
hearing shall be served by certified mail upon every owner of real property,
as determined by the latest assessment roll abutting such road or portion
thereof. In the event the Town Board after such public hearing determines
that such road or portion thereof shall continue as a minimum maintenance
road, no petition may be submitted pursuant to this section until the lapse
of at least two years from the date of the filing of the petition. In the
event it is determined that such road shall be discontinued as a minimum maintenance
road, the Town Board, by local law, shall discontinue such road or portion
thereof as a minimum maintenance road and such discontinuance shall take place
six months after the commencement of the next succeeding fiscal year.
Notwithstanding the provisions of § 111-13 of this article, the Town Board may adopt a local law discontinuing such minimum maintenance road designation in the event it determines such discontinuance to be in the public interest.
The following tables and accompanying data shall be used as guides by
the Town Superintendent of Highways to classify low-volume road in the Town
of Caledonia and shall be used to enable the Town Superintendent to determine
the guidelines he may follow to enable him to determine the manner in which
low-volume roads may be designed, maintained and operated. Editor's Note:
The following guides are included at the end of this chapter:
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Classification for Low-Volume Roads and Guidelines for Design, Maintenance
and Operation
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Table 1, Low-Volume Road Classification
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Table 2, Design Guidelines for Road Rehabilitation by Road Type
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Table 3, Cross-Slope Drainage Criteria by Surface Type
| |
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Table 4, Maintenance Activities for Low-Volume and Minimum Maintenance
Town Roads
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Definitions of Maintenance Activities
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This section lists guidelines for traffic control on low-volume and
minimum maintenance roads. It describes methods of traffic control that are
cost-effective and promote safety.
[1]
Editor's Note: The guidelines for traffic control on low-volume and
minimum maintenance Town roads are included at the end of this chapter.
