Under a temporary plan, the city will pay 80 percent of sidewalk
repair costs, and 100 percent for the worst of the lot
… at least until September.
Under a temporary plan, the city will pay 80 percent of sidewalk repair costs, and 100 percent for the worst of the lot … at least until September.
So the city council decided unanimously Monday night in a much calmer tone than last week, when the sidewalk debate came to a boil. Compromise was the name of the game this week, and the body decided to tentatively tweak the city’s 15-year-old 50-50 repair program until staff returns in September with an updated survey and financing options.
“This is so the council can feel comfortable that there’s a new program beginning right now,” City Administrator Tom Haglund said. “Then we will come back with a comprehensive review of funding options and an updated survey, along with new costs.”
Under the temporary program that begins July 1, residents in the 50-50 line will still split the cost of sidewalk repair evenly with the city, but they won’t pay a dime for tree removal and replacement and any curb and gutter repairs. This work normally happens alongside any sidewalk repair, and property owners used to split these costs with the city, as well. Now, a property owner should end up paying about 20 percent for the total project after everything’s said and done, the city about 80 percent, according to staff calculations.
Beyond this, property owners with sidewalks considered by the city to be in a state of abysmal disrepair won’t have to pay anything. But figuring out exactly who qualifies for this – the resident with a mangled sidewalk or the neighbor with a really mangled sidewalk – and exactly how much it will cost to fix all the city’s concrete walkways will require a new city-wide survey, staff said.
The city conducted two sidewalk surveys in 2006 and 2002, but they did not prioritize the repair problems and merely identified sidewalks as broken or not broken, according to City Transportation Engineer Don Dey.
“We don’t have that (priority) list yet. That’s why the inventory is so important, so we can identify the worst sidewalks,” said Dey. The survey could take a few weeks to a month, Dey added, whereupon property owners will know if their cracked sidewalks qualify for fully funded repairs. “Knowing the worst of the worst depends on how fast recognition comes in from the survey,” Dey said.
Darlene Miller, who has lived in Gilroy for 15 years, labeled this third survey a “delay tactic” by the city and bemoaned the fact that nothing has been done year after year.
“Which areas are considered to be terrible? We have roots that keep raising and raising our sidewalks, but now the city wants to do another survey after another survey?” Miller said. “We’ve had guys come out with orange spray paint and spray our sidewalks over and over and over again.”
Councilmembers Cat Tucker, Perry Woodward, Bob Dillon and Craig Gartman have all said they want to pay for 100 percent of the sidewalk repair, but they have different plans and have floated different funding sources to do so. Staff will come back in September after vetting the different options, most notably Gartman’s plan to borrow money from different city funds.
Mayor Al Pinheiro and councilmembers Dion Bracco and Peter Arellano have continually pointed to state law mandating that property owners must repair their sidewalks and have advocated fixing the sidewalks together with property owners.
“Some of us want to fix the problem tomorrow, and others want a more comprehensive way to do this,” Pinheiro said.
No matter how they decide to ultimately fix the problem, all council members agreed they need to know how much the problem will cost with shifting construction fees, rising diesel prices and more sidewalks having cracked since 2006. At that time, staff estimated it would run the city $3.2 million to repair all the sidewalks.
Tucker said she would like the city to assume all the repair costs over a long period of time, fix the problem and then start from ground zero with a new street tree plan and more permanent reliance on the state code.
“I want this done, but at some point I propose we cut off the 100 percent approach and rely on the state mandate,” Tucker said. “We need to get it done and then from that point forward it’s on the owner.”
“That sounds like something I could support as long as we have a plan to fix them afterward,” Bracco replied.
Resident Mary Yates sat on the Sidewalk Task Force in 2006 that ended up advocating the 50-50 program, and she warned the council against the fix-it-all approach. Be careful paying for all the sidewalks, she said, because some residents have spent thousands through the carrot-and-stick 50-50 program and would cringe at the thought of their tax dollars fixing lazy residents’ sidewalks.
The council has discussed a new street tree policy to get rid of the source of the sidewalk-cracking “problem.”
While state law does require residents to repair their sidewalks – and some cities cover none of the costs while others cover all – confusion has arisen because section 5610 of the state Streets and Highways Code also says property owners are not responsible for portions of the sidewalk damaged by “any person other than the owner” who has “a right granted to him by law or by the city authorities.”
This means that city-protected, sidewalk-damaging trees – which have caused 90 percent of the problems, according to Dey – are the culprits; the city made a mistake by requiring them, so now it needs to pay for the damage, according to Dillon and company.
Moreover, property owners must repair sidewalks that “are dangerous to the public health, safety and welfare of the inhabitants of the city,” according to city code, and the tree policy similarly “allows for street-tree removal when the tree presents a public safety hazard,” according to a report by Carla Ruigh, the city’s operations services manager. But “the (tree) policy does not allow for tree removal because of damage to sidewalks.”
That’s why the Parks & Recreation Commission will address what types of trees can be planted and where they should be planted, Community Services Director Susan Andrade-Wax told the council recently.
Sidewalks, by the numbers
$3.4 million – Total value of sidewalk repairs since inception of 50-50 program in 1993
$1.4 million – Residents’ share due to nearly $520,000 in asphalt-concrete repairs paid by city
42 percent – Actual share paid by residents
$725,000 – sidewalk repairs on city property and low-income areas all paid by city
744 – Number of 50-50 projects
50 – Average number of projects per year
768 – Number of trees removed
530 – Number of trees replaced
Source: City of Gilroy
