York County won’t stop taking in new roads as incoming developments lay them, instead searching for other answers to their maintenance problem.

The idea of no longer accepting new roads came up several times previously as York County Council struggles to find ways of improving road maintenance. The idea came up formally in a January transportation committee meeting, with a planning staff study following.

“This is why you study things,” said councilman Michael Johnson. “This had a nice sound to it, until you read about it.”

If the county stopped accepting new roads into its maintenance system, a savings would follow for about five to seven years. The problem, the study found, comes later. If a builder turns over roads to a homeowner association for maintenance, the county has fewer assurances of proper construction and maintenance.

“We can’t go down this road and put it on the backs of homeowners, HOAs,” said councilman William “Bump” Roddey. “It’ll be disastrous.”  Read more: