Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal • June 20, 2016 www.wbjournal.com FOCUS Regional Focus: Worcester "If the city had owned the street, it would have assumed the responsibility of closing it up and restoring it to its prior position," he said. John Hill, a spokesman for the city of Worcester, said the DCR, not the city, was responsible for the project. Foster said he continues to fill pot- holes and keep the street in drivable condition, but he doesn't believe it should be his responsibilities. "This street services many commercial properties that the city realizes the tax bene- fits from," he said. Substandard streets Worcester's private streets date from before 1925, when new regulations began requir- ing that streets be built up to certain standards, including having a foundation and appropriate drainage. Today, there are still about 81 miles of private streets in the city that were never up to city codes, said Paul J. Moosey, Worcester's public works and parks commissioner. "They're the biggest source of com- plaints that we have at DPW in terms of dust and mud," Moosey said. Most of the private streets are residen- tial, and they're often dirt roads, he said. In some cases, property owners pitch in and pay for good maintenance, but some of the streets create big problems, par- ticularly those on steep hills that may wash out during rainstorms and become unpassable in the winter. Runoff from private streets without proper drainage pollutes rivers and ponds. The price of change It is possible to convert the streets into public ways, but it's not cheap. The city estimates the typical cost at $140 to $180 per foot. In most cases, property owners must agree to shoulder most of the expense, though the city pitches in by funding things like design and survey costs. Moosey said the city converts a bit less than a mile each year, budget- ing $1 million to cover its costs. Moosey said living on a private street can cause homeowners problems when they want to sell their properties. "I've talked to several realtors over the Foster said the seriousness of the issue on Kansas Street became obvious about seven years ago, when state Department of Conservation and Recreation and the city Department of Public Works and had to do emergency work on the sewer system below the pavement. After dig- ging up the street, Foster said, the city left it full of potholes rather than restor- ing it to its previous condition. PRIVATE ROADS The trouble with Worcester's 81 miles of private, substandard roads impede traffic, development and real estate transactions BY LIVIA GERSHON Special to the Worcester Business Journal E rnest Foster can tell you that owning a street isn't easy. The West Boylston real estate broker owns buildings on both sides of Kansas Street in an old industrial corner of South Worcester. Because that section of the street isn't classified as a public way, that means he owns the street itself. "It's not nice," Foster said. "The burden is on me to maintain the street." Private roads are a longstanding headache in the city of Worcester and in other Central Massachusetts communities. While cities and towns plow snow from these streets and do enough emergency maintenance to ensure that emergency vehicles can get through, they're not able to use state funds to repair and improve them. Many are in such bad shape that they'd require major intervention to meet city codes. Commercial property owner Ernest Foster said the condition of Kansas Street in Worcester has deteriorated since the city and state worked on it seven years ago. State Rep. Daniel Donahue (D-Worcester)

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