Residents of the Cedar Mesa Ranches subdivision are seeking help from the Montezuma County Board of Commissioners to curb speeding in their neighborhood.
The subdivision north of Mesa Verde National Park has a system of red-signed, private roads, so most traffic laws are not enforceable by the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office.
But because the roads are designated in the subdivision plat for public use, some residents believe they could become green-signed, county roads under county jurisdiction. If the commissioners reclassified them to green-signed, it would give the sheriff the authority to enforce the 20 mph speed limit, said Chris Hinds, road committee chairman of the Cedar Ranches Homeowners Association.
“There are a lot of families moving in, kids are riding their bikes, and residents walking the road a lot,” Hinds said. “It‘s a safety concern.”
Residents said there is a problem with speeders in the subdivision, and there have been several crashes from drivers taking corners too fast.
Hinds emphasized that homeowners would not expect any road maintenance from the county if the roads were changed to green-signed, county roads. The subdivision would continue to maintain the roads, he said.
“The objective is to give the sheriff more authority to ticket speeders,” Hinds said.
Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin said his deputies do not have jurisdiction to enforce traffic violations on private roads, according to state statutes. He said the Sheriff’s Office is allowed only to enforce certain driving crimes on private roads: reckless driving, DUI, hit-and-run and careless driving.
“Unless it’s a green-signed, county road, we can’t issue speeding tickets because they would be dismissed in court,” Nowlin said.
Cedar Mesa is occasionally patrolled by the Sheriff’s Office, he said, and radar speed signs have been placed there as well to slow down drivers.
Cedar Mesa has about 10 miles of roads. Road 35 is the main thoroughfare, with a length of about 3 miles. The subdivision has 139 properties and 90 homes.
Traffic has been increasing in the subdivision, residents said. The latest traffic survey showed 110 vehicles were coming and going from the entrance between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m.
County commissioners referred the issue to the planning department for review.
Just north of the Cedar Mesa subdivision is the West Summit Lake subdivision, which also had red-signed roads designated for public use in the plat.
Last year, county commissioners changed the red-signed roads at the West Summit Lake neighborhood to green-signed roads with the intent to improve public access to Bureau of Land Management property in the area. However, it was later revealed that a 2-foot strip of private land separated the road easement from BLM land, which prevented the BLM from installing a proposed access gate and parking lot