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Council discusses draft road/chip-seal ordinance; staff asked to move technical verification steps to SOP
Summary
Council reviewed a draft ordinance establishing procedures and verification for chip-seal and road construction work; members asked staff to revise technical sections or place them in a departmental SOP and to clarify who verifies contractor work.
Bulverde council members on Jan. 14 reviewed a draft ordinance intended to formalize procedures, verification and enforcement for city road repairs such as chip-seal and related resurfacing work. The item was a discussion; council did not adopt an ordinance.
Council members and staff debated the draft’s Section 2, which assigns responsibility for verifying contractor surface-preparation work. One council member said the verification role should not be overly prescriptive and suggested that responsibility lie with the public works director or the city’s consulting construction inspector rather than by ordinance. "It would either be the public works director or our consulting engineering firm," a council member said during discussion.
Staff and council recommended moving detailed technical steps into an internal SOP or departmental policy to avoid binding the city to specific operational checks in the ordinance text. Discussion also covered allowable aggregate for chip-seal (trap rock vs. coated aggregate) and timing details such as warm-weather windows for chip-seal application and the need to complete base repairs before surface treatments. One participant referenced a prior project where late contractor performance led to patch failures when chip-seal was applied over fresh asphalt.
Council asked staff to revise the draft, trim operational specifics from the ordinance and return with either an updated ordinance or a clarified approach that combines ordinance language on enforcement with an SOP for technical procedures.
