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Hayward Council adopts sidewalk maintenance ordinance amendment, establishes $30,000 hardship fund
Summary
The Hayward City Council adopted an ordinance amending the municipal code to clarify property owners’ responsibility to maintain and repair sidewalks and approved a hardship program with an initial $30,000 allocation.
The Hayward City Council voted Oct. 28 to adopt an ordinance amending Chapter 7, Article 2 of the Hayward Municipal Code to clarify who must maintain and repair sidewalks and to establish a hardship program and waiver of related encroachment-permit fees.
City staff told council the amendment creates a "rebuttable presumption" that adjacent property owners are responsible for sidewalk defects and any resulting injuries, while preserving defenses where the city is the cause. An assistant city attorney said the updated language includes an exception when a city-owned tree causes a defect: if a displacement meets the ordinance threshold — 1 and 3/4 inches — the owner may assert the city's tree as the cause and the owner would not bear liability.
Staff also presented a hardship program and a resolution allocating an initial $30,000 to the program from non‑general‑fund sources for this fiscal year. The hardship program is intended to help owners who cannot afford immediate repairs, and staff said the program will require a notice to the city and the filing of an encroachment permit and contractor information as part of the process.
Mayor Pro Tem Roach and other council members asked how notice and outreach will be handled. Staff said that if council adopts the ordinance, property owners will receive notice of the change in the next water-bill cycle and that the city can include education materials in Adopt-a-Tree and other programs. Staff also said typical complaint-response practice is to inspect reported defects within roughly 48–72 hours and to either grind small displacements or require full repair and an encroachment permit where displacements exceed the threshold.
Councilmember Zirmeno moved to adopt the ordinance and Mayor Pro Tem Roach seconded. The clerk called the roll and the ordinance passed on a 7–0 vote. The ordinance clarifies liability, sets the displacement threshold at 1.75 inches for city-tree exceptions, establishes the hardship fund and fee waiver, and directs staff to notify owners and implement the hardship program.
