Santa Clara County Municipal Code Art. 2 Pavement Cut Cost Recovery Fees

No person shall cut or remove the pavement of any highway under County jurisdiction, for the purpose of constructing, maintaining or removing any pipe, drain, conduit or similar facilities, without first obtaining an encroachment permit to do so in compliance with this chapter.

(Ord. No. NS-703.9, 5-18-04)

(a) The Director shall not issue an encroachment permit to cut or remove the pavement of any highway under County jurisdiction until the applicant pays a pavement cut cost recovery fee. The fee shall not exceed an amount reasonably necessary to recover the estimated costs for all future maintenance, repair and resurfacing that would be necessary to fully mitigate the damage and degradation caused to adjacent pavement by the proposed excavation. The fee shall be highest for excavations in newly surfaced highways and shall decrease as the age of the highway surface being excavated increases. For persons who comply in a timely manner with all provisions of section B17-40, the fee amount shall be based on the lowest County management system pavement condition index (PCI) measurement as of or following the date of disclosure of plans to excavate that portion of the highway, but in the case of intervening repavement or resurfacing, this provision applies only so long as the excavation work proceeds as scheduled in the master plan. The amount shall be established by resolution of the board of supervisors and shall apply to all persons.

(b) This fee shall not be charged for excavations:

(1) In a portion of highway that the County has scheduled for repavement or resurfacing either during the fiscal year (July 1 through June 30) when the encroachment permit is issued or during the subsequent fiscal year;

(2) In a portion of highway where the existing pavement quality is already so degraded that the pavement condition index (PCI) as defined by the County's pavement management system is less than 25 on the date the encroachment permit is issued;

(3) Made by a person who has complied in a timely manner with all provisions of section B17-40, and whose excavation is in a portion of highway where the County pavement management system's most recent measurement of PCI was less than 25 as of the date that person disclosed plans to excavate that portion of the highway under section B17-40, and whose excavation is completed within one year of disclosure;

(4) That will include any repavement that results in substantial strengthening over the entire width of the highway where the excavation is made for longitudinal cuts, and over the entire length of the highway where the excavation is made for transverse cuts, equivalent to one and one-half inches in depth of asphalt concrete, provided that such work is approved by the Director;

(5) Made for a utility relocation required by the County to accommodate a proper governmental use of a highway; or

(6) That a person has the right to make under a franchise agreement without being charged a pavement cut cost recovery fee.

(c) All pavement cut cost recovery fees collected shall be paid into a special fund or funds to be expended solely for the maintenance of County highways.

(Ord. No. NS-703.9, 5-18-04)