photo by: Rochelle Valverde

A person walks down the sidewalk on 14th Street on Feb. 3, 2022. The section of sidewalk pictured is part of the city's 2021 sidewalk improvement program.

Lawrence city leaders are set to discuss the city’s controversial sidewalk policy that generally requires property owners, not the city, to pay for repairs to sidewalks bordering their homes and businesses.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will receive a staff presentation about the city’s sidewalk repair policy and related financial assistance program, and respond to commissioners’ questions regarding potential policy changes, according to a city staff memo to the commission.

The topic is in front of the commission at the request of Mayor Courtney Shipley, whose election campaign included the position that the city should take full responsibility for sidewalk repairs. After past unsuccessful efforts, Shipley recently succeeded in getting the city’s sidewalk improvement policy on the commission’s agenda. In response to comments from Shipley at a meeting in February, the commission’s two new members, Amber Sellers and Bart Littlejohn, said they were open to discussing the policy. Shipley noted at that time that the commission had not reconsidered the program since it adopted its new strategic plan, and she thought that would affect the discussion.

As part of Tuesday’s meeting, the commission will discuss the origin of the current policy that was adopted in 2018, the subsequent implementation of the program in 2019, and changes to the program that have been made over the past couple of years. The city’s long-standing ordinance requiring all property owners to pay to repair the sidewalks running along their property had not been fully enforced for decades, and the policy and related program were intended to begin enforcing the ordinance.

As part of the sidewalk improvement program, the city inspects sidewalks within a certain area each year to identify tripping hazards. Property owners can sign on to have a city contractor complete the repairs, and low-income homeowners and those with more than one adjacent sidewalk can apply for financial assistance from the city. The city is also financially responsible for damage that is the result of city street trees and city infrastructure, such as manholes.

The city has spent approximately $2 million on the first three phases of the program, according to the memo. The city estimates that 51% of the city’s remaining sidewalk segments need spot repairs, and that the city’s cost toward repairing those segments would be $5.4 million. The city has allocated $675,000 in 2022 for the Sidewalk Improvement Program, and should that level of funding remain stable it is estimated that the remaining repairs would be complete in 2030.

However, as the city began inspecting sidewalks in older parts of town as part of the most recent phase of the program, some sidewalks were found to be in such disrepair that they warranted complete replacement. As the Journal-World reported, of the nearly 400 blocks of sidewalk identified for repairs as part of the 2021 program, close to a quarter of the blocks were in such disrepair that the city decided it made more sense to replace the entire block instead of just repairing the damaged sections. The city’s preliminary estimate for completing all the full block replacements identified in the 2021 program is between $6 million and $13 million.

Overall, the city estimates that 20% of sidewalks need complete replacement. The city memo states that the Multi-modal Transportation Commission is working on revisions to the city’s Non-motorized Projects Prioritization Policy, including the addition of a project list for sidewalk replacement. The new list will guide prioritizing the sidewalk segments that are inspected as part of the annual Sidewalk Improvement Program and found to need full replacement instead of repair. The program to date has not included repairs or replacements of brick sidewalks.

The current policy was arrived at following an extended debate at the commission level and has garnered opposition from some homeowners. One of the issues the city has emphasized in past discussions of the sidewalk ordinance and policy has been liability and potential for litigation. The memo notes that should a personal injury occur on a sidewalk in disrepair that borders personal property, the property owner maintains liability for potential damages instead of the city. If the city were to take over full responsibility of sidewalk repairs, it would take on increased liability.

As part of Tuesday’s discussion, city staff will be asking commissioners what additional information they need and what policy changes they would like to consider. If commissioners decide to make changes, the city would gather feedback, conduct research and then prepare a recommendation for the commission’s consideration.

The Lawrence City Commission will convene at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. Residents may attend in person or participate virtually following instructions included in the commission’s agenda packet, which is available on the city website, Lawrenceks.org.