Town buckles under pressure

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers UNEVEN-Jeff Corber and his dog Max carefully navigate a protruding sidewalk in Oak Park. Exactly who pays for the sidewalk maintenance has become a bone of contention. Oak Park sidewalks show

their age

If the residents of Oak Park had asked the famous children's author Shel Silverstein where the sidewalk ends, he would probably have given them a far different answer than the one they got from the Public Works Agency of Ventura County.

Residents feel the agency's policy toward sidewalk maintenance in Oak Park is unjust and leaves homeowners to pay for costly repairs. The agency's position is: County sidewalk maintenance ends where private property begins.

Along Conifer, Maplegrove, Bayberry, Pinewood and Tamarind streets in Oak Park, sidewalks have begun to crack and buckle due to the growth of tree roots.

"Take a walk down these streets and you will definitely see the problem," said Harvey Kern, an Oak Park resident and community activist. "People are getting frustrated with the problem."

Sidewalks are cracking from the pressure of Japanese elm, sycamore and pine tree roots.

While a slender root seems no match for a weighty block of concrete, roots can apply a tremendous amount of force, wedging themselves into sidewalk cracks and crevices, experts say. And as roots grow, they act as levers and heave heavy slabs of concrete upward, splintering and cracking them.

"The county of Ventura's existing policies and practices assign the responsibility for maintenance of sidewalks, trees and other facilities within the parkway strip to the adjacent property owners, as authorized by California law," said Butch Britt, director of public works' Transportation Department.

Britt said it's the homeowner's responsibility to repair damaged sidewalks. He said the county simply doesn't have enough money to repair every crack, so it places the responsibility of maintenance on property owners, even when the sidewalks become hazardous.

"The policies may be Draconian, but I simply cannot spend money that I don't have," Britt said.

If residents wanted the county to provide sidewalk repair services, they would have to pay the county more money through a County Services Area funding mechanism, which allows residents in unincorporated areas to pay for additional municipal services.

"In Oak Park, street sweeping and some other municipal services are provided by the CSA that was established when the community was built. However sidewalk repair and maintenance was not authorized," Britt said.

Creating a new service area would require a popular vote of all property owners in the community in addition to a new assessment on property tax values, a step most homeowners are reluctant to take.

Under county procedure, when a problem with a sidewalk is observed or reported, the property owner will be sent a formal notice from the Public Works Agency.

"If a simple repair can render the sidewalk safe and usable, the Road Maintenance Division will normally make a temporary repair at no expense to the property owners," Britt said. If the property owner fails to take action after a series of warnings and notices, public works will make the repairs and then bill the property owner. Failure to pay the bill will result in a lien on the property, officials said. But property owners don't necessarily need to turn their lawns into treeless deserts to protect against root damage. Roots of older trees can be trimmed to keep them away from sidewalks, but cutting roots excessively may result in an unstable tree that may topple.

It is now standard county procedure to give newly planted trees a root guard or barrier, a device that trains the roots down into the ground rather than out into the sidewalks.

"These methods help reduce or delay damage from roots, but Mother Nature is pretty powerful, and over time she tends to win over any sidewalk," Britt said.

Property owners who need to make sidewalk repairs are encouraged to do so in concert with their neighbors. By bidding for multiple repairs to be done on a single day, property owners are often able to save money when hiring a contractor.

Ventura County road maintenance can be reached at (805) 388-4518.