1. Provide City Council with an overview of the history of the Flagstaff Sidewalk Ordinance (City Code Chapter 8-01).
2. Provide City Council with an overview of the current policies and practices related to the Sidewalk Ordinance.
3. Seek council direction on the following items:
   1. Staff proposing amendments to the Sidewalk Ordinance at a later Council Meeting that will clarify administrative processes and correct outdated language. 
   2. Responsibility for repair of damaged sidewalks. The current Sidewalk Ordinance places the responsibility on the adjacent property owner. 
   3. Work program for sidewalk maintenance and financial implications.

The Public Works Street Section is responsible for the maintenance of the city’s transportation infrastructure.  There is approximately 270 miles of sidewalk located in City right of way that has been constructed to various design standards.  Pursuant to Chapter 8-01 of the City Code (“Sidewalk Ordinance”), the Streets Section is responsible for responding to complaints regarding sidewalk conditions in the City. When a complaint is received, the Streets Section is charged with contacting the adjacent property owner about the issue and arranging repair. Although not codified, the current policy for residential properties is to provide an estimate for the repair and offer to pay 50% of the cost of repair (subject to budgetary constraints). For commercial properties, 100% of the cost of repair is requested from the property owner.
          
The Streets Section has taken steps to implement a more comprehensive sidewalk inspection program, and through that process has identified some inconsistencies between the Sidewalk Ordinance and current practices.  Staff also recognized that the Ordinance contained some outdated language and conflicting provisions.  Considering the original ordinance was adopted in 1903, and amended in 1916 and 1989, a thorough review of the Ordinance and underlying policy is warranted.  

Many of the proposed amendments are to clean up language, notification methods, and timelines.  In addition, more substantial direction is being requested to clearly define the responsibilities of the City and adjacent property owners.  The direction from Council may result in changes to the capital delivery programming and have financial impacts. 
 

Recent sidewalk inspection efforts have identified 222 unique locations as needing repair.  The neighborhoods inspected to date include Cheshire, Christmas Tree, Foxglenn, Greenlaw, Shadow Mountain, Skyline Estates, Smokerise, and Mobile Haven.  The inspections were based on citizen concerns and visual field evaluations, and the area covered represents approximately 15% to 20% of the sidewalk inventory citywide.  The average size of each repair location is 57 sq. ft. and the cost of each repair is approximately $850. This calculation is based on a relatively small sample size (10 of 222 locations) that were measured and estimated. Because of the relatively small sample size used to estimate costs, staff is reluctant to extrapolate any final numbers or program costs at this time.

Attached to this staff summary is a map of all sidewalks in the City (Exhibit A); sample sidewalk inspection reports for the Cheshire and Upper Greenlaw neighborhoods, which identifies the locations of sidewalk issues in each neighborhood (Exhibit B); and a copy of the current Sidewalk Ordinance (Exhibit C).