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County commissioners to hold public hearing for uniform speed limit on county roads

Tue, 03/05/2019 - 12:30 pm

Those traveling with a leadfoot on Stephens County roads may soon have to ­find the brakes, as the county court is considering a uniform speed limit of 30 mph for select county roads.

The county commissioners will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. Monday, March 11 to receive comment from residents on the proposed change. These actions come a couple months after the county briefly discussed the concept in their­ first January meeting, as well as after what of­ officials called numerous complaints from residents.

If the change goes through, this speed limit would not impact city, state or national roads and highways that go through the county. Those would stay the same as they are now. This order would target only county roads.

Immediately following the March 11 hearing, the item will be considered by the commissioners. If passed, it will not change every road in the county to a 30 mph limit. Rather, it will make all county roads eligible for the limit to be installed. In order to of­ficially implement a speed limit, however, the county must also include signage on the particular road in question.

Without a sign, the speed limit will not be enforceable. There are limitations to this, though, in regards to state law. According to the Texas Transportation Code, in the absence of any other speed limit, the limit applicable to county roads is 60 mph. There are several speci­fic roads the court is wanting to target with this limit.

If the uniform limit were to pass, of­ficials said it would save the county time in terms of the judicial process, as it will allow them the ability to implement a speed limit on a particular road with just signage. This is opposed to having a public hearing and consideration for each individual road, which, according to the recommendation of Stephens County Sheriff Will Holt, sits at around a dozen.

Background

Both Holt and County Judge Michael Roach said the history of this not only dates back to the several complaints they have received, but to the new county court’s first meeting of the year in January. At their first January meeting, they discussed what it would take to implement such a thing.

Once the court figured out how to implement a change to target specific roads without impacting the broader scope of the county, they decided to act. Roach said in researching this, he found other counties that have implemented a similar policy to what Stephens is hoping for. He drew a direct comparison to what Eastland County passed and also invoked some of their help.

He said the order for Stephens County will look almost exactly like theirs. In forming this policy, Roach said other help has come from Stephens County Attorney Gary Trammel, as well as other outside counsel.

The legal process

Roach explained there is a ceiling and floor that can be implemented for a uniform speed limit. Those caps are 60 miles and 30 miles, along with 20 miles in certain circumstances. With no assigned speed limit, the default speed limit for county roads, called the “prima facie” speed limit, sits at 60 mph.

The court can set this uniform speed limit at any limit it wants as long as it remains within the 30 to 60 mph range. To go above or below that, a speed study is required, which is conducted by the Texas Department of Transportation. The steps to implement this uniform speed limit are first to post a notice of a public hearing and then hold it. After these items are completed, the court can take action and adopt the policy if they want. Though, other caveats can arise in this process.

The county is attempting to adopt the lowest limit, 30 mph. But if one of the commissioners wants to make one of their roads a different limit than 30, then there has to be an individual public hearing for that particular stretch of road.

“It’s judicial economy to go in one time and set a blanket speed limit throughout the county,” Roach said. “We’re not doing speed studies, we’re not having a hearing for 45 and 52 and 37. We have 300-some-odd miles of county road. It would be never-ending.”

Holt provided a list to the commissioners court that details which roads have the most complaints and trouble. Those are County Roads 229, 224, 225, 269, 274, 278, 197, 198, 315, 176, 241 and 262, according to an email sent from Holt to the court.

But this does not necessarily mean these will be the roads targeted. Ultimately, the roads they decide to install signage on will come down to what the commissioners and their constituents want.

Why implement a uniform speed limit?

The No. 1 reason both Holt and Roach gave for wanting a uniform speed limit is the safety of the county. Holt said he has received several complaints since being in office about reckless and speeding drivers on roads where people live and work.

Holt added most of these roads are located around Hubbard Creek Lake and on the outskirts of Breckenridge, with several of the roads leading to and from the city. He explained while there are normal, law-abiding citizens that use these roads, those with criminal histories have been also known to use them to sneak in and out of town as a way to avoid major highways that may have law enforcement present.

“I feel those people who regularly give us those high volume of complaints are going to be very happy,” Holt said. “And those are the people that live and work on those roads and are negatively affected by the reckless driving and the speeding vehicles.”

On top of safety, Holt said he sees it as a good opportunity to be able to catch those criminals who use those roads. As far as concerns of potential overreach, Roach said the goal is not to target roads where nobody lives or works, such as a road where someone can go 40 to 50 mph safely and not harm anyone. This proposal is geared towards a few key roads that will be decided on by the individual precincts.

Outside of safety, other reasons Roach gave for the proposed change was the durability of the roads. He also said the way they are going about the process will save the taxpayers of the county money, as rather than having to hold individual hearings for every road, it’s getting done in one.

Concerns

As far as negatives, Holt said a lot of the downsides people are worried about are not based in reality. He said there will most likely be a small number of people who are concerned with the idea that these speed limits will be used to create speed traps.

“That’s just simply not the case,” Holt said. “We don’t have the manpower to set up speed traps. That’s not the goal of this.”

The other potential complaint he thinks may come up is people speculating the county is doing this as an attempt to increase revenue, which he also shot down, saying the goal is to increase public safety.

“This is about enforcing a reasonable speed limit on just a very few number of roads so that we have safer county roads [around the lake and Breckenridge].”

To allow for residents to adjust, Holt anticipates a grace period on these particular roads, specifically one that is three months or less. This will mean if you are pulled over for speeding, you more than likely will not receive a ticket. Holt said the reason behind this was rooted in the fact that most of these roads have not had any speed limits for decades, so it’s reasonable to allow residents to get used to the change.

After the grace period, it will be up to the deputy on whether or not he or she wants to write a ticket. Roach brought up the cost of implementing this as a potential downside. Specifically, purchasing the road signs, along with installation and potential future maintenance. He said at this time, the county has not totaled up how much they estimate it will cost. But from previous discussions among the commissioners and judge, it will cost around $30 per sign.

Other fees and costs that could accompany that are not known at this time.

“We’re going to have to incur some costs to put signs up, no doubt about it,” Roach said. “And we’re really going to have to weigh that with how important that road is because the county is on a tight budget and we’re going to have to really be conscientious.”

The public hearing and reception

The public hearing will take place 9 a.m. Monday morning, March 11 in the District Courtroom at the Stephens County Courthouse. Both Holt and Roach are encouraging residents to show and voice their concerns or approval.

Roach said he’s not sure how the public hearing will look, calling it a coin flip on how people would react. But he added most of the feedback he has gotten about it has been positive. Both he and Holt said they encourage residents to show and voice their concerns, and take an active part in their local government.

“We still want to hear from (residents),” Roach said. “We want to hear their opinion, though it may be contrary to the direction we want to go or feel is necessary.”

Holt added based on the conversations he is having with people, the potential change seems to be getting a positive response. Talking about the bigger picture, Roach said his goal was to figure out how to improve not just government, but the county in general. And this comes from examining each issue as they come and figuring out the best way to approach change.

“This speed limit thing is a reflection of the approach we’re going to use to county government,” Roach said. “Which is to say, ‘Let’s look at it … and investigate the best way to do it.’ I think we found a great solution and I hope that’s a reflection of how this court is going to operate county business.”