City looks at a community involved approach to the overdue
sidewalk repair
Gilroy – After decades of hand-wringing over the state of Gilroy’s cracked and uprooted sidewalks, a task force has come up with a solution: Don’t fix them.
Or more precisely: Don’t finance citywide sidewalk repairs by asking taxpayers to fork over $9 million or by slashing through the city budget to cobble together the funds.
Instead, the Sidewalk Task Force, composed of 14 citizens, public officials and City Hall staff members, will recommend to city council in coming weeks that it should consider a package of incremental steps to improve sidewalks over the long haul, according to City Transportation Engineer Don Dey.
“None of the task force members supported the idea of going out with a bond election saying we want to raise a certain amount of money to do all these improvements,” Dey said. “(Instead,) over a 25 or 30 year period, sidewalks will get looked at on a more continual basis instead of just getting fixed when they fall apart.”
The long-term approach would hinge on an aggressive advertising campaign for the city’s 50/50 Sidewalk Repair Program, which splits the cost of repairs with homeowners, along with reminders that they are legally responsible for any injuries that occur on concrete walkways in front of homes.
Homeowners who refuse to fix sidewalks could have a lien placed on their property for the full cost of the repairs, under one policy recommendation of the task force. The group also will recommend adding sidewalks to the list of items that must undergo a safety inspection before a home sale. Much like a shoddy roof or rusty gas line, a tree root punching through a walkway could be cause for the city to block a sale.
As in past years, sidewalk repair dominated the campaign trail in the 2005 election.
Councilman Craig Gartman in particular decried years of foot-dragging on the issue and called for the city to carve millions of dollars out of the budget to finance repairs within two or three years. At the beginning of the year, just three months after his election, he begrudgingly agreed to the formation of the task force after fellow councilmen insisted on the need for an exhaustive review of sidewalk conditions and repair options.
Gartman called the task force’s approach a “hit and miss” solution that could leave sidewalks in disrepair for decades while the city waits for property to change hands.
“I’m kind of disappointed that the task force didn’t want to fix all the sidewalks at once,” he said. “But I’ll keep an open mind and listen to the recommendations of the report.”
The recommendations were less of a disappointment to Mayor Al Pinheiro, who pushed hard for the formation of the task force before financing improvements. While the task force worked, the council increased funding for the 50/50 program to $250,000, from an initial recommendation of less than $200,000. The average sidewalk repair costs $3,000, though it can reach as high as $15,000.
The recommendations have yet to reach council in written form, but Pinheiro liked the task force’s approach to the problem.
“I don’t think that just by throwing out all this money into sidewalks, that that would be the only answer,” he said. “We need to be pro-active to do all the things that this task force is recommending.”
The $9 million repair estimate includes about $4 million for sidewalks and another $5 million to fix curbs and gutters, install ramps at corners for the disabled, and create sidewalks where there are none along portions of existing roads.
The estimate is based on a map of problem areas developed this summer by an intern who walked every block of the city. Despite the detailed map of problem areas, the task force was unable to meet one of its charges – prioritizing the list of needed improvements.
“That was something we never were able to get a handle on,” task force member Tim Day said. “How much is too much of a problem? Is it half an inch of lift (on a sidewalk)? Two inches? It was like trying to grab a hold of jelly.”
The sidewalk policy recommendations will be presented to city council by January.
