Salem City Council Decides Sidewalk Issue

Salem sidewalks have had their share of debate, and a new move by the city council is drawing new criticism.

Salem sidewalks downtown Photo by: Kevin Hays

(SALEM, Ore.) - At their meeting Monday evening, the Salem City Council heard the second reading of Mayor Janet Taylor's motion to phase in return of maintenance and repair responsibilities of sidewalks to the landowners abutting those sidewalks.

The motion passed 5-2 with Councilors Tessler and Bennet opposing and Councilors De Hart and Rogers absent (although there was a guest councilor for Rogers who did not vote).

Even if both absent Councilors had opposed the motion, it would have still passed 5-4. In discussions with both of these men, they have made statements suggesting they would have supported the motion.

What the Ordinance Changes do

All sidewalks immediately abutting property owned by taxing districts or governmental bodies, like the city, county, state or federal government, are their own responsibility when it comes to maintenance and repairs. The only exception to this is if damage was caused by city owned/controlled trees.

The city will maintain responsibility for all repairs and maintenance for all street corners including ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) required 'curb cuts' and ramps regardless of abutting property ownership.

The city will determine the status of all sidewalks put into place in the past 15 years and notices will be sent to abutting property owners informing them of their immediate responsibility for repair and maintenance of these sidewalks. If there are issues of damage or other problems with the sidewalks in question, then the landowners must notify the city who will inspect the issues. If they are determined to not be up to code the city will repair the issues before turning over responsibility.

All other sidewalks in the city will be examined by city crews to determine the repair status. As sidewalks are deemed up to code and in good condition they will be handed to the abutting property owner for future maintenance and repair responsibilities.

A list of all sidewalk issues will be compiled and prioritized and repairs will commence as soon as possible in order of priority. In order to get the job done, the city will utilize $1 million in the Qwest settlement funds as well as increased general funding.

As this is known to be inadequate to meet the needs of the entire project, further funding will be sought through various grants and other sources. Mayor Taylor went on record as stating they will NOT be seeking any new tax, fee, bond or any other such means but instead exploring other funding sources that may be possible.

As sidewalks are repaired as described above, responsibility for ongoing maintenance and repairs will pass to the abutting landowner, except as noted above regarding street corners and issues with city owned/controlled trees.

Councilor Tessler's opposition was apparently due to her concerns that low/fixed income landowners will not be able to meet the responsibilities.

Councilor Bennett's opposition was apparently due to his opinion that the sidewalks are a city infrastructure and as such should be maintained by the city.

Councilor Rogers presided as Chairman of the Sidewalk Task Force that was formed in November 2006 to deal with the issue of Salem's unsatisfactory sidewalks.

History

In 1989 the Salem City Council was plagued by many complaints from landowners who were held responsible for repairs to sidewalks that were damaged by city owned and controlled trees. At that point, they decided to take on the responsibility for all sidewalk maintenance and repair in the city.

Over time the city was unable to find the funds to make good on its offer, owing to recession and tax limit strains on city budgets.

In 2001 the city council passed a streetscape fee that would have, in part, funded city expenses to repair and maintain the city's sidewalks. This fee was quickly referred to the ballot by opponents and the fee was resoundingly defeated in the election in 2002 by a margin of 81 percent to 19 percent.

Due to growing complaints as well as the possibility of a class action ADA lawsuit being filed against the city under Barden v Sacramento the city council formed the Sidewalk Task Force in November 2006 to find solutions. The task force met several times hearing testimony and deliberated and reported their findings to the city council in May 2007 after presentations to many civic and neighborhood organizations.

A public hearing for comment was held August 27th 2007 (record of this is available at the CCTV website) and due to the volume of comment the period for written comment submission was held open until September 17th 2007.

Mayor Janet Taylor made the motion regarding the ordinance changes at the August 23rd 2007 city council meeting and the second reading and vote was done at the October 1st city council meeting passing the motion 5-2 with 2 councilors absent.

Controversy and Debate

Many commenting at the hearing and elsewhere seemed to feel as Councilor Bennet - that the sidewalks are a civil infrastructure that the city should maintain. However this view is not held by any other city in any state in the US and in fact was not held in Salem either prior to 1989. The only city the council could find that maintained all sidewalks in its jurisdiction was Washington DC which is, needless to say, a special case. Also it should be noted that during the 18 years of the policy from 1989 to 2007, not a single other city in the nation considered the idea meritorious enough to emulate it. This is likely due to Salem's complete failure with the experiment.

Other residents made comments supporting Councilor Tessler's view regarding low/fixed income landowners and their lack of ability to afford the responsibility. The task force suggested a low or no interest loan program to assist such landowners the final ordinance has no such provision.

But the ordinance, in cases of landowners unable or unwilling to do the needed repairs, has the city doing the repairs and placing a lien upon the property. Those funds will be collected the next time the property is refinanced or changes ownership.

Some pointed out that if someone is not fiscally able to meet their responsibilities as a landowner, maybe they should sell the property that they are unable to properly maintain.

Several citizens from the disabled community pointed to the painful and safety threatening aspects of the current sidewalk situation and pointed out that the city had a responsibility, however it chose to meet it, to make sure the sidewalks were safe and passable to ADA standards. It was suggested many times that if the city continued to neglect its responsibility in this area, a class action lawsuit under the ADA would be filed against the city and others.

Some people at the hearing made statements demonstrating an apparent lack of knowledge regarding the topic. Some suggested they would remove the sidewalks abutting their property, place 'toll booths' or in other ways (such as sprinklers) 'dissuade' pedestrians from using the sidewalks abutting their property.

These speakers seem to lack knowledge of what public right of way is. It is, as discussed at this city council hearing, a specific form of easement. The sidewalks are 'owned' by the landowner but owing to the rules of right of way and easement they cannot remove the sidewalks or impede in any way the public's legal use of the sidewalks regardless of the landowner's views. The landowner can choose to sell the property and move to a property without sidewalks, but of course there is no guarantee sidewalks would not come into play at the new location eventually.

Some likened the action to a 'tax' on some landowners, those with abutting sidewalks. As was pointed out this is no more a tax than requiring one to keep their lawn mowed or weeds under control is a 'tax'. Those raising this argument seem to be seeking solidarity and support from the segment of society that simply oppose all taxes of any kind (all the while benefiting from those same taxes they so vociferously oppose).

What next?

There is already a compiled list of 4000+ sidewalk issues at the public works department. Assessing the sidewalk issues will be an immediate task for that department as well as creating the initial lists of highest priority repairs to be done. At this week's meeting it was also pointed out that the repairs the city would do prior to handing back responsibility to the landowners would not be the 'patch and grind' type but actually permanent and complete repairs.

It is presumed that the project will take years, possibly as many as ten or more, before the city is out of the sidewalk business other than for tree issues and street corners. We are told to not expect to see waves of repairs over the immediate few months as those will be planning and information gathering periods, however some repairs will immediately be accomplished. But over the coming few years we are told the sidewalk situation will get significant improvement and that hopefully someday soon the city of Salem will no longer need to feel shame for the condition of its sidewalks or for how it treats its pedestrian population in that regard.

We can only wait and see... and hope.