SANTA CRUZ >> Despite a flurry of damaging storms in recent winters made worse by cash flow challenges, Santa Cruz County road crews were able to make some progress last year when it came to providing drivers with a smoother ride.

The county Department of Community Development and Infrastructure was able to repave almost 17 miles of roadway in unincorporated Santa Cruz County in 2023, according to a recent release from the agency. The effort was powered by a confluence of funding sources including 2016 Measure D sales tax revenue, GreenWaste fees, State Transportation Improvement Program funds and Regional Surface Transportation Program Exchange grants.

According to a report from the county summarizing resurfacing projects from 2018-2023, almost 11 miles of the 16.8 resurfaced miles last year were fully or partially paid for by Measure D. A majority of the 55 projects targeted roads in District 2, which includes the county’s coast from Capitola down to Pajaro Dunes but also inland areas such as Day Valley, Freedom, Corralitos and Amesti.“This milestone highlights the critical role the 2016 Measure D sales tax has played in funding ongoing maintenance projects on our road network,” the county Community Development and Infrastructure Department wrote in a statement. “Since its introduction, the sales tax from this measure has funded the repaving of nearly 50 miles of roads. We remain committed to continuing this important work, ensuring that Santa Cruz County’s road infrastructure meets the needs of our growing community.”

According to the 2018-2023 resurfacing report, 85.5 miles of roads were resurfaced during the five-year period thanks also, in part, to state grant funding. Last year’s repaving mileage total is roughly equal to the five-year repaving average, according to this report.

The nearly 17-mile announcement comes in the wake of a scathing report released in June from the Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury that was critical not only of the “deplorable condition” of the 586 miles of county-maintained roads, but also the county’s general approach to maintenance and repair.

The report contended that the county failed to implement a balanced effort to address the many issues facing the local transportation network and took special aim at an unfunded backlog of $401 million in maintenance projects and its system of 6,000 culverts also in suboptimal condition. According to the report, the county’s 2019 average Pavement Condition Index was less than 48 which is 17 points below the statewide average and it is expected to drop to 33 by 2028.

The county, for its part, filed an extensive response last month to the grand jury report and took issue with claims that it had dropped the ball. County officials maintained that they were diligently trudging ahead to keep the local road network safe and functional despite significant financial disadvantages and a worsening climate crisis.

The response reminded the grand jury that Santa Cruz County is systematically underfunded compared to peer counties due, in part, to outdated state property tax rules and online sales tax laws that send most of the revenue to the jurisdiction where the item shipped from. On top of that, the county is also on the front lines of climate change impacts with seven federally declared disasters since 2017. It was recently named the most vulnerable county in the state—and No. 15 in the nation—to landslides. Plus, the county is still waiting for large sums of reimbursement money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that have taken years to arrive.

Also at one of its August meetings, the board agreed that a major slide along Mountain Charlie Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains that occurred in February constituted an emergency and that repair work to establish temporary road providing access to impacted residents should continue.

Still, the response argued, investments have been significant with $350 million spent in the last seven fiscal years which is greater than the three-year operating budget for the Sheriff’s Office and would fund County Parks for 20 years.

However, the county and the grand jury both expressed an interest in raising taxes on the county’s Special District 9D for the first time since 1998 as a means for generating more road repair and maintenance money.

“The County has explored the possibility of asking voters for a Special District CSA 9D several times in the past and is currently making a more serious inquiry into to voters’ appetite for a proposed increase,” the county wrote in its response.