Last night, the Common Council voted to approve the Public Works Board's recommendation to hire Crawford & Associates, a highly experienced and reputable project manager, to oversee the construction and repair of sidewalks under the Sidewalk Improvement Initiative law passed last year.
I am the Chair for the Public Works Board and want to provide the following summary.
The law (amending Article XXII of the Charter for the City of Hudson) essentially transfers the responsibility for American Disabilities Act (ADA) sidewalk standards from a building owner to the City. Taking on this responsibility will allow the City to begin ensuring the sidewalks are ADA compliant as required by law as quickly and efficiently as possible. Building owners will be assessed a maintenance fee to offset this additional cost for the City.
A Public Works Board (PWB) was formed earlier this year to make recommendations to the Common Council as specified by the law. The first issue was to identify a Project Manager. The PWB recommended Crawford & Associates, a Hudson City Engineering firm.
Immediate action is required to address non-ADA compliance issues with sidewalks, street ramps, and identified street crossings. These projects, which will begin without delay, are crucial to show progress. We understand the challenges the City has faced with recent street construction, but we cannot afford to postpone this work any longer.
We will though try to publicize any work as far in advance as possible.
Most homeowners and commercial buildings will be assessed an annual maintenance fee based on a formula determined by the length of the building's length abutting the sidewalk and its square footage. This is a simplification of the law, and there are lots of exemptions and deductions based on recent work, etc.
For most homeowners, the maintenance fee will be $200.00 PLUS Frontage fee ($30.00 for each 55 ft. of footage) PLUS Square Footage Fee ($0.015 of the lot's building square footage) Minus past work deduction. The City will then be responsible for maintaining the sidewalks for ADA compliance, relieving the building owner of this burden. The building owner will still be responsible for snow and ice removal.
The positive outcome of this project is a more accessible and user-friendly City for everyone. We look forward to the improvements this initiative will bring to our community.
The statute creating the Sidewalk Improvement District can be found at Section C22-188 of the city code. In addition to Purnhagen, the Public Works Board is made up Jason Foster, Commissioner of Public Works; Justin Weaver, ADA Coordinator; David Marston, who was appointed to the PWB by the Common Council; and George Kroenert, who was appointed by the mayor.
Until ALL sidewalks abutting city-owned properties and other city-owned walking areas are remedied completely (of which there are many full of hazards), I don't see how this can progress. If the city forces property owners to pay for their sidewalks to be repaired but the city doesn't repair its own, well, what the hell? The city can't expect to be taken seriously if they say "we'll get to ours later," can they?
ReplyDeleteBut that's just par for the course, no? It's a sacred tradition that cities never abide by their own rules. I still remember my NYC days where on a harsh winter day, black ice would only be a certainty on sidewalks in front of a municipal parking lot or the post office.
DeleteI applaud Gary for his concise summary of the project at hand. I believe that ADA compliance refers to issues such as curb cuts, "ramps" etc., but does it also address issues such as uneven pavement/surfaces (i.e. where the sidewalk poses a danger to pedestrians whether disabled or not)? It would seem that is ought to address these issues as what sense would it make for a curb cut to be installed at a particular crosswalk only to have the person proceed further down and risk a trip/fall over a crack in the walkway.
ReplyDeleteFirst a sidewalk fee, then an increase in the sidewalk fee, then a frontage fee is added, then a square foot fee is added, now an engineering firm is added. How much will we eventually pay to finance this expanding bureaucracy? How simple and cost effective it would have been to hire a couple of guys to walk around town and hand out citations to people with broken sidewalks. Welcome to the world of big daddy government and escalating taxes. I wonder what new tax will be imposed next in the guise of a fee?
ReplyDeleteHanding out citations doesn't fix the sidewalks. And when people actually do fix them, they do it as they see fit. Imagine if homeowners were responsible for the section of road in front of their property? It just never made sense, because you need a city entity to oversee every repair done by a property owner to assure it's to code and complies with ADA. Never gonna happen. The city taking it on, is, and always has been, the only real solution.
DeleteWhat does the square footage of the lot have to do with a sidewalk? Money grubbing?
ReplyDeleteI provided the link to the actual language in the code because Purnhagen's explanation seems not to agree with my understanding of the fee structure developed over the months of watching the law being drafted. I believe that frontage and square footage apply only in calculating the fee for nonresidential buildings. I also believe that, according to what's in the code, most people will be paying $100 a year not $200. It's not clear which areas of the city are going to be considered "high foot traffic" or "low foot traffic."
DeleteThanks for the clarification, I haven't been paying attention and from the post I thought the fees had been raised.
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