Sewall’s Point passes road regulation ordinance | Martin County

SEWALL’S POINT – The Town Commission majority here passed a new road regulation ordinance May 12 to specifically protect the town’s multimillion-dollar investment in stormwater and roadway improvements along South Sewall’s Point Road.

Town Manager Robert Daniels described the desire behind the ordinance to keep the new pavement from being marred the first few years by utility companies laying new lines.

“Obviously we’ve spent a lot of money on Phase 1 and now Phase 3 is complete on our roadway resiliency project,” he said. “One of the key things mentioned to me is that we don’t have any protection on anybody coming in and cutting into our roadway, whether it be one of the vendors we have now in our right of way or rather it be a vendor in the future. So, there’s really two provisions in here: One is the fact that we don’t want open cutting on the roadway, at least for the first five years; and two, there’s a provision where we can require any of the entities using our right of way to get a permit prior to starting any work. There wouldn’t be a cost to the permit. I’m just trying to protect a big asset.”

Vice-Mayor Kajia Mayfield immediately posed a clarification question.

“This will be mainly utilities that you’re talking about in the right of way?” she asked.

“Correct, and there’s communications equipment, which I guess could be said is a utility,” Daniels replied. “Communications are a little bit different because they are governed under another section too. Basically, we can’t charge for doing the registration.”

“This is somewhat common among municipalities?” Vice-Mayor Mayfield prodded.

Town Attorney Glen Torcivia tackled that inquiry.

“That’s not at all uncommon – especially if you just spent a bunch of money fixing your roads – to make sure somebody doesn’t cut them without you knowing it first,” he said.

The vice-mayor then made a motion for approval, but Mayor Vinny Barile promptly tapped the brakes.

“There’s more discussion,” he said, alluding to questions coming from Commissioner Frank Tidikis.

“Have their been any occurrences of this, somebody coming in and chopping up the road?” the latter asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Daniels responded.

“So, is this a solution in search of something that’s not a problem?” Tidikis continued.

“Well, it’s only a problem when it occurs,” Daniels answered. “Then you have to repair the roadway.”

“It’s protection,” Commissioner Frank Fender chimed in.

Commissioner Dave Kurzman agreed.

“It’s an insurance policy,” he said.

None of that assuaged Commissioner Tidikis’ concerns.

“Less government is better government,” he said. “That’s my viewpoint, and we haven’t had a problem. The town’s been around since 1957, and in all those years, no one has torn up the roads. There was a letter from Comcast that basically said there were some sections of this ordinance that needed to be amended.”

Commissioner Fender, however, viewed the contents of that latter from a different perspective.

“When I read the Comcast letter, it seemed they weren’t too happy that we were going to prevent them from cutting up the roads,” he said. “I would think everything has a negotiation point to it, and if there’s a reason to cut the road, we would at least have a discussion about it. This would be a way to slow that process down. I would also look toward Glen and what his interpretation of the Comcast letter is.”

“Of course they’re not happy,” Torcivia said. “They’re asking you to give an exception in this ordinance for them. And you’re allowed to do that if you want to.”

Commissioner Fender still needed more clarification.

“Would that give them an exception to come and ask us for an exemption in real time rather than giving them a blank check a head of time?” he asked.

“Yes,” Torcivia replied, “you’d regulate them like anybody else. You know, if you grant it for Comcast, I guarantee you AT&T will be in the door next and FP&L will be next. Then it’s the exception as they say will swallow up the rule. Again, it’s your call whether you want to have it [the ordinance] at all and if you want to exempt anybody.”

That satisfied Commissioner Fender.

“I’ll second the motion,” he said in reference to that made by vice-mayor.

Mayfield than clarified her own reason for supporting the ordinance.

“What’s different to me is we now have very nice shoulders and curbs to our roads that we never really had before,” she said. “Honestly, it seems like you could have torn up the side of the road before and nobody would have even noticed. Now, there’s a nice curb and shoulder so it seems like it would be more of a problem.”

The Sewall’s Point Commission then voted 4-1 for approval, with Commissioner Tidikis dissenting.