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Council authorizes manager to review outdated 50/50 sidewalks policy amid drainage complaints in older neighborhoods
Summary
The mayor and manager said the city's longstanding 50/50 cost-share policy for curb, gutter and sidewalks is failing older neighborhoods; the manager will draft a replacement policy to address drainage problems and inequities.
Council members discussed a decades-old policy that requires neighborhoods to share 50% of the cost for curb, gutter and sidewalk projects, a rule the mayor said has prevented necessary drainage and road repairs in older parts of the city.
"It had to be a $50.50 deal with the, community," the mayor said, describing the earlier policy and noting it has never worked equitably. City Manager Jesse Wallace asked for council authorization to develop a new policy that would allow the city to address saturated road bases, drainage infrastructure and other conditions that make routine repaving impossible without upstream fixes.
Wallace said public-works crews had to address an emergency drainage and road base problem in one neighborhood where the base was too wet to pave, prompting ad hoc work that complied with the public good but not the letter of the outdated policy. He urged revision to ensure consistent, equitable handling of established neighborhoods' infrastructure needs. Council members asked that staff include findings about pump-station siting and landscaping, and to propose a fair financing approach.
