#4 Discuss & direction to staff on 2010 sidewalk program
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS MEMORANDUM
December 2, 2009
TO: City Council
FROM: Mike Payne, Engineering Manager
SUBJECT: Direction to Staff on 2010 Sidewalk Program
Summary
The Council held a sidewalk study session September 6, 2007 to consider
changes to Council Policy #70 – Sidewalks, which lead to a follow-up public
hearing and Council Action at the January 14, 2008 meeting where the Council
adopted a Pedestrian Transportation Corridor Plan (PTCP) and directed
revisions to the Policy. The City Sidewalk Policy was updated March 25, 2008
based on Council direction.
Engineering requests the Council provide direction regarding three sidewalk
related items:
1) Direction on how to proceed for new planned unfunded sidewalk
installation in 2010
2) Direction on whether the City should implement a proactive sidewalk
inspection program to identify and repair defect sidewalks or continue to
facilitate a complaint-only based program
3) Direction on implementing a sidewalk permit fee for property owners who
privately coordinate sidewalk improvements outside the City Sidewalk
Program
Following Council direction, Engineering will amend Council Policy #70 –
Sidewalks and return to Council at a future meeting for formal approval.
Recommendations
The Engineering Division makes the following recommendations:
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Establish a proactive sidewalk inspection program in coordination with the
annual street resurfacing program.
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Establish a sidewalk permit fee of $185 to recover the City’s overhead
costs of coordinating private sidewalk construction or repairs rather than
including the overhead in the assessment rate for administering the
sidewalk program.
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The Engineering Division does not have a recommendation concerning when to
implement the planned unfunded sidewalk program. This is a policy issue best
left to the discretion of the City Council.
City Manager Recommendation
The City Manager recommends instituting the sidewalk permit fee consistent with
the 2010 budget discussion, but does not have a recommendation on the
remaining points.
Discussion
Planned Unfunded Sidewalk
The current Council Policy for planned unfunded sidewalk indicates the City will
start constructing approximately nine (9) miles of new sidewalk beginning in 2009
and continue with this approach until complete. There are approximately 63
miles of planned unfunded sidewalk “gaps” in the City sidewalk network. It is
anticipated the sidewalk gaps would be completed within seven (7) years of
commencing sidewalk construction. Planned unfunded sidewalk requires the
abutting property owners to pay for the sidewalk installation through an
assessment process. The property owners are given the option to construct the
sidewalk themselves, hire a private contractor, or have the City sidewalk
contractor complete the work. If the City coordinates the installation, property
owners have four (4) options to pay for the work:
1) Pay in one lump sum.
2) Pay the sidewalk assessment on a five (5) year plan at the City’s current
interest rate.
3) Make a request to the Council for a financial hardship and spread the
payments over 10 years rather than five (5) years at the City’s current
interest rate.
4) An individual over the age of 64 at an owner occupied residence with a
family income less than 50% of the County median income may apply for
payment under state statute 74.77 which places a lien on the property in
lieu of requiring payment.
Property owners living at corner lots pay for the full cost of sidewalk installation
on the first frontage ordered to be constructed but are granted an exemption for
the first 70 feet on the second frontage constructed. The corner lot exemption
was added to Sidewalk Policy in 1999. The 2010 Major Capital Projects budget
includes funding to implement nine (9) miles of planned unfunded sidewalk in
2010 if the Council wishes to implement the current Sidewalk Policy. In 2009,
the Council directed staff not to propose nine (9) miles of planned unfunded
sidewalk, but rather limited the consideration to citizen requested locations.
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Sidewalk Inspection Program
The Engineering Division currently administers a complaint based sidewalk
defect program. Staff logs all sidewalk complaints and visits every location to
determine if there is a sidewalk defect. Complaints generally come in one of two
forms – 1) a concern at a particular address or 2) a concern with a particular
walking route, consisting of specific blocks. Once the inspection is performed,
temporary asphalt wedges are installed, if necessary, and a letter is sent to the
property owner outlining options for correcting the defect. Replacement sidewalk
is handled similar to new sidewalk where property owners are given the
opportunity to complete the work themselves, hire a private contractor, or have
the City sidewalk contractor complete the work. The City is liable for sidewalk
defects when the City becomes aware of a potential defect. The City has been
sued for injuries based on sidewalk defects and has paid approximately $16,000
in claims over the last 3 years.
In evaluating Janesville and 13 comparable Cities, approximately 30% of our
comparable cities coordinate complaint based programs while 70% perform
some type of a proactive approach in addition to addressing specific complaints.
In 2009, there were 228 property owners with defect sidewalks based on
complaints received. Three options are available for managing sidewalk defects:
1) Leave the current complaint-based process in place.
2) Establish a proactive sidewalk inspection program where Engineering staff
inspects sidewalk at the same time curb & gutter is inspected prior to
street rehabilitation. The City typically rehabilitates approximately 11
miles of street centerline which could be up to 22 miles of sidewalks to
evaluate annually. During the 2010 budget review process, the Council
agreed with a staff recommendation not to assess property owners for
curb and gutter replacement in the future when streets are rehabilitated.
This decision eliminates the possibility of burdening property owners with
paying for curb & gutter and sidewalk repairs at the same time.
3) Establish a proactive sidewalk inspection program where the City is
divided into zones with the intent of proactively inspecting one zone per
year. There is approximately 345 miles of street centerline in Janesville
but not all streets have sidewalks. So for example, if 10 zones were
created, there would be approximately 34.5 miles of street centerline
which could require up to 69 miles of sidewalk be inspected in a given
year.
Option Pros Cons
No Change ??
Effectively responds to Does not proactively identify and
citizen complaints to resolve repair defective sidewalk which may
sidewalk defects. in turn lead to injury.
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Cost effective to allow the May make it more difficult to defend
users of the sidewalks to City in trip and fall lawsuits.
notify the City of potential
sidewalk defects.
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Option Pros Cons
Inspection in ??
More efficient to inspect Additional staff costs to inspect
conjunction with
sidewalks at the same time sidewalk, mail notices to property
street rehabilitation
as the curb is inspected owners, and follow-up
program.
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May reduce the incidences Some streets are not rehabilitated for
of injury due to defective long periods of time (20 years) and
sidewalk thus sidewalks will not be inspected
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regularly
May be easier to defend the
City if trip and fall lawsuits
Inspection based ??
Guarantees every sidewalk Additional staff costs to inspect
upon regular cycle
will be inspected for defects sidewalk, mail notices to property
on a regular basis owners, and follow-up. More
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expensive than Option 2 because
May reduce the incidences
additional inspector would be sent
of injury due to defective
into field to only inspect sidewalks.
sidewalk
?
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Significant additional workload for the
Will make it easier to defend
Engineering Division and may require
the City if trip and fall
additional staff.
lawsuits
Sidewalk Permit Fee
The construction or repair of public sidewalks by private property owners is
permitted by state statutes, city ordinance and city policies. A consistent
message City staff receives during coordination of sidewalk programs is about
the fairness and equity issues surrounding the private construction or repair of
sidewalks.
The primary issue with private sidewalk construction or repair versus the City
administered construction is that all city related overhead costs are recovered
through the assessment process. This means property owners constructing or
repairing sidewalk privately avoid their share of total program overhead costs and
pass them along to property owners choosing to have the City build or repair
their sidewalks through City managed Public Works contracts.
There are three (3) options for the Council to consider regarding this issue:
1) No change to the current process.
2) Fund all overhead costs through program borrowing with the
corresponding debt service paid for by a General Fund.
3) Fund the overhead costs related to private construction through the
institution of construction / repair permit fees.
The pros and cons of each option are summarized in the following table.
Option Pros Cons
No Change ??
No additional steps needed Doesn’t address equity issues
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Fewer oversight opportunities
Program Borrowing ??
Spreads costs city-wide Borrowed funding yields additional
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interest expense
Induces contribution of those
without sidewalks
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Option Pros Cons
Program Borrowing ?
Less administrative
(cont.)
overhead
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Eliminates discussion of
additional costs over const.
Permit Fee ??
Better tracking of private Additional administrative process
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construction
Additional bill to those citizens
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Pays for services used electing private construction
Engineering proposed a sidewalk permit fee as part of the 2010 budget
enhancement/reduction process. At that time, different fee amounts were
proposed for new construction versus repair, but that is no longer the
recommendation. Staff analyzed several different sets of data to determine a
probable fee that would recover the associated staffing costs of the program.
The most reasonable appears to utilize an estimated 3.75 hours spent for each
property privately coordinating construction or repair of sidewalks. This results in
a proposed fee of $185 based on applying an averaged fully burdened hourly
rate. This is an equity issue to recover costs and is not proposed as a revenue
generating fee.
Attachments
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Council Policy #70 – Sidewalks
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2010 Engineering Budget Reduction #6 (sidewalk permit fee)
cc: Eric Levitt
Jacob J. Winzenz
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