Borough to emphasize education, citizen portal for sidewalk and right-of-way rule enforcement

Code enforcement staff told the Smart Growth Committee on Sept. 10 they will prioritize education and use the borough's citizen portal to track and resolve complaints about items placed in sidewalks and other right-of-way uses. Aaron Flook said the borough ordinance explicitly limits non-pedestrian uses of sidewalks and that staff will focus on compliance through outreach before escalating to enforcement. Flook pointed to a specific ordinance section, "95-11B," which he said states in the last line that "you cannot put use the sidewalk for anything other than a sidewalk. Period." He said staff found examples ranging from temporary retail displays and seating to pop-up collections in front of restaurants and businesses. "We started looking into some of those and discussing with them. And instead of... going to punishment, we have been trying to do more education," Flook said. Flook described the borough's front-page citizen portal as the preferred channel for reporting issues; it allows anonymous submissions or contact information for follow-up and provides a trackable workflow. He said the portal helps staff document steps taken and improve consistency in enforcement. "If you do fill it out, you can fill it out anonymously if you want. If you do wanna put your information in, you can do that also... it also helps us to train our code enforcement officers to go there and be proactive instead of reactive," he said. Discussion vs. decision: The committee agreed that staff should proceed with an education-first approach and increase outreach to businesses about sidewalk-usage rules; staff will follow up with individual property owners and report back on compliance. No fines or formal enforcement actions were announced at the Sept. 10 meeting. Ending: Staff said they will continue targeted outreach to businesses (cafés and stores) that place displays or seating in the right of way, encourage the use of the citizen portal for complaints, and follow up with enforcement if outreach does not achieve compliance.