Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

There is nothing carved in stone regarding the allocation or apportionment of costs to improve and maintain easements or the facilities installed thereon.

However, by far the most usual arrangement, and the default situation if the parties fail to specify something different, is that the costs of installing improvements on an easement are borne by the holder of the easement (the dominant tenement, here, the "new land owner"), and the costs of maintenance are borne by the user or users of the easement in proportion to their degree of use.

If you aren't benefitted by the easement and don't expect to be using the paved roads, you should not expect to be responsible for any of the costs. Indeed, you could probably demand to be paid for granting the easement.

This sounds like a major project - "paved roads" in the plural - and since an easement is usually a permanent concession of rights in your land, I'd strongly advise you to consult a real estate attorney regarding wording the easement agreement and what's fair on the money issues.

It depends. The general rule is that as the owner of the servient tenement, you are not responsible for maintaining the easement unless there is an agreement between you and the owner of the dominant tenement to do so.

"The owner of any easement in the nature of a private right-of-way, or of any land to which any such easement is attached, shall maintain it in repair." (Civ. Code, sect. 845 subd. (a).)

That section, however, provides that in the absence of agreements, costs shall be shared proportionately to the use made of the easement by each owner. I suggest familiarizing yourself with the entire statute:

http://law.onecle.com/california/civil/845.html