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.

After being in place three years, a controversial policy that generally requires property owners to pay for repairs to sidewalks bordering their homes and businesses could potentially see some changes.

Though clear differences of opinion existed among the Lawrence City Commission members, commissioners directed city staff as part of their meeting Tuesday to develop a plan to gather public input regarding how the city funds sidewalk repairs. Mayor Courtney Shipley, who has pushed for years to have the city’s policy reconsidered, said how the city currently handles sidewalks is inequitable and that just because the city has not historically funded sidewalk repairs doesn’t mean that’s the right approach.

“Because the whole way that we have been building things for the past 100 years has been entirely centered on the automobile, so of course there is not a focus on sidewalks,” Shipley said. “There never historically has been; that doesn’t mean it’s not the right and equitable thing to do.”

Shipley said it didn’t make sense that the city pays to add new sidewalks along some streets at no cost to the property owner while at the same time sending notices to others requiring them to pay for repairs to their existing sidewalk. She said if walkability and bikeability are indeed important to the city, the city needs to indicate that by prioritizing funding for sidewalk repairs. She noted that the city already has an infrastructure sales tax it uses to fund streets and other infrastructure projects, and additional federal infrastructure dollars will likely be available.

Though other commissioners didn’t necessarily disagree with the importance of pedestrian infrastructure, some did express concerns about funding and whether all sidewalks should be prioritized. Vice Mayor Lisa Larsen said if the city were to take on full responsibility for sidewalk repairs, it would be important to identify a funding source — and potentially a new funding source.

“I am concerned about how it’s paid for, that we don’t take away from what we have been doing with the (Capital Improvement Plan),” Larsen said. “I think we’ve been doing a great job of catching up (and) we’ve got a ton of catch-up to do.”

Commissioner Brad Finkeldei said some sidewalks, such as those along major roadways or pedestrian routes, were more important than others. He said he was not sure he would support a program in which the city funded all sidewalks, but that he would probably be in support of a program that prioritized sidewalks important for transportation. He said he liked that the current repair program took that into account.

As part of the current sidewalk repair program, which began in 2019, the city inspects specific sidewalks within a certain area each year to identify tripping hazards. Property owners whose sidewalks are identified for repairs 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.

However, Shipley emphasized that the commission’s recently adopted strategic plan stresses the importance of public engagement. She said that though the city has done Lawrence Listens surveys about various topics and gotten feedback on different aspects of sidewalks, it has never directly asked residents how they would like to see sidewalk maintenance funded.

The commission did receive some input on that topic as part of its meeting agenda. Lawrence resident Adrienne Landry Dunavin submitted a petition asking the city to take full financial responsibility for all sidewalks. She said that in four days, she was able to gather about 100 signatures asking for all sidewalks to be equally maintained by the city. Dunavin said it didn’t make sense that some sidewalks have been deemed the responsibility of property owners, and that the city’s policy has led to the poor state of sidewalks in the city.

Several residents who signed the petition also included comments. Lynn Gimpel wrote that the city required her to pay $1,000 to fix the sidewalk in front of her townhouse, which she said is used by others in the neighborhood and should be publicly funded.

“Sidewalks are public spaces and should be maintained by public funds,” Gimpel wrote.

Ultimately, the commission agreed that once recently collected public feedback about the city’s pedestrian plan is finalized, the commission should create a plan to collect public input about how the city handles sidewalk repairs, including how and to what degree those repairs should be funded. Exactly what questions will be posed to the public will be brought back to the commission for discussion at a future meeting.