By Jill Locantore, WalkDenver Policy Director
As Denver’s population grows, the City must provide the basic infrastructure that allows people to safely and easily get around.
Walkable neighborhoods with good sidewalks are the foundation of a complete transportation system that offers practical options including transit, walking, biking, car share, ride share, bike share, and driving a personal vehicle.
The lack of sidewalks in an urban environment is unacceptable. Photo courtesy of WalkDenver.
Good sidewalks are particularly important for the one-third of the population that doesn’t drive due to age, disability, or income.
Currently Denver property owners are responsible for building and maintaining sidewalks adjacent to their property. Sidewalk repairs can cost a property owner thousands of dollars.
Lax enforcement of the current sidewalk policy means that many Denver neighborhoods have substandard or no sidewalks at all.
A fee of $5-$10 per month (for an average property) would provide a sustainable funding source for building new sidewalks, repairing old sidewalks, and upgrading substandard sidewalks throughout Denver.
WalkDenver has therefore launched a petition calling upon the City and County of Denver to assume responsibility for building and repairing sidewalks, and to establish a dedicated funding source (such as a property fee) for this purpose.
Join with WalkDenver and sign the petition today! Together we can make Denver not only more walkable, but a truly great city.
Maybe we would have more infrastructure improvements if our mayor wasn’t corrupt and amoral. Seriously, the city is making a ton of money off legal pot, and we have an influx of new residence and businesses. So where is the money going? City Park is falling apart, the roads are crumbling, and new and improved infrastructure is nonexistent.
That doesn’t sound entirely fair, to me. Why should property owners who HAVE built and maintained proper sidewalks now be required to chip in on sidewalks for the ones who haven’t? It seems like it would cost less to tighten up the enforcement. You’d have to prove to me that there wasn’t some fat that could be trimmed in the ‘Neighborhood Services’ department before that sounded fair, too.
Also, a minor point, but some of us don’t drive because we’re just that socially responsible. The idea that people only walk because they’re old, disabled or poor is unfortunate. I find it somewhat disheartening to hear it coming from our only advocacy group.
…but the dirt trail in my front yard doesn’t have to get shoveled in the winter!
Kidding, sort of.
However, the pedestrian-me agrees fully with your stance on this.
No thanks. I already subsidize enough government programs.
Has anybody put together a planned fee structure so we can see what this might look like? I assume the fee would be proportionate to ROW frontage – seems the most logical, and safest/most likely to survive a TABOR challenge. But would it also vary by land use – for example, would commercial property owners pay more? Would multi-family be assessed the same as single family, and if so, would there be some per-unit escalator so the Spire pays more than a 12-unit building in Cap Hill? Very much like the idea, but would very much like to see a tangible plan. It seems premature to be tossing out $5-10 per month statements if something like this doesn’t exist.