Sidewalk Maintenance

[behogie230]

This differs a lot by municipality. I'm an engineer for a city in which property owners are responsible for all sidewalk AND curb. Two years prior to paving a street, we'll inspect all the curb and sidewalk along the street then send notices out to property owners. If they have to replace curb, that also means they have to pave the street that abuts the curb. $ $

Unfortunately there's no way we could afford to maintain all curb and sidewalk. Paving costs enough as-is.

[davewiecking]

I'm glad I don't have to walk along or drive on streets that were built by Joe Sixpack some Saturday afternoon.

[triplemultiplex]

I gotta say, a system where the city bills individual property owners for the repairs and/or construction of public sidewalks on public right-of-way is stupid.  You'd never, ever fund public streets this way, so what the Sam Hell do they think they are doing here?  This is infrastructure that everyone can use and exists on municipal property. Sidewalks are always within the right of way of the city street (barring some HOA bullcrap).  So WTF?

Much, much better to have a system where they have a sidewalk maintenance program that is folded into the regular property taxes for everyone in the community.  It makes way, way more sense financially.  This is a public asset that everyone should contribute to.  This direct billing seems implicitly designed to discourage the public to support walking infrastructure and turn the community into a place where cars live and not people.

[Scott5114]

I gotta say, a system where the city bills individual property owners for the repairs and/or construction of public sidewalks on public right-of-way is stupid.  You'd never, ever fund public streets this way, so what the Sam Hell do they think they are doing here?  This is infrastructure that everyone can use and exists on municipal property. Sidewalks are always within the right of way of the city street (barring some HOA bullcrap).

I agree that it's stupid, but it sounds like in the cities where this is normal, public sidewalks aren't on public right-of-way.

[Big John]

Green Bay used to charge the property owners for roadway resurfacings.  This stopped a couple years ago when then enacted a wheel tax.

[behogie230]

I gotta say, a system where the city bills individual property owners for the repairs and/or construction of public sidewalks on public right-of-way is stupid.  You'd never, ever fund public streets this way, so what the Sam Hell do they think they are doing here?  This is infrastructure that everyone can use and exists on municipal property. Sidewalks are always within the right of way of the city street (barring some HOA bullcrap).

I agree that it's stupid, but it sounds like in the cities where this is normal, public sidewalks aren't on public right-of-way.

No, the sidewalk are still within the ROW. The code is just worded in a way where property owners are responsible to perform maintenance on the curb and sidewalk. This has been the case in every municipality where I've worked.

Now don't get me started on commonly-owned alleys... Alleys that are on the grid system and connect to the rear of properties, but aren't within the ROW. All properties that abut the alley are equally responsible for its maintenance. As you can imagine, most are a crumbling mess.

[GaryV]

I gotta say, a system where the city bills individual property owners for the repairs and/or construction of public sidewalks on public right-of-way is stupid.  You'd never, ever fund public streets this way,

Never, ever? Then why are we still paying a special assessment years after our street was repaved? A public street, not private.

The kicker is that the city then voted on a property tax to pay for street repairs. So now we're paying both the special assessment for our street and the tax for other streets.