Title
Sidewalk Repair Policy Development
Recommended Action
Information only. No action requested.
Report
Issue:
Briefing on sidewalk repair policy development.
Staff Contact:
Max DeJarnatt, Associate Planner, Public Works | Transportation, 360.570.3723
Presenter(s):
Max DeJarnatt, Associate Planner
Background and Analysis:
Some sidewalks in Olympia are in a state of poor repair, and City efforts to encourage adjacent property owners to fix them are often not successful.
Currently, OMC 12.36.010 requires adjacent property owners to repair their sidewalks. The City does repair some sidewalks on streets where we maintain street trees, which is downtown and along some major corridors. These streets have a lot of pedestrian activity and some transit stops.
Elsewhere, once we are aware of a damaged sidewalk, we send a letter to the property owner and request that they repair the sidewalk adjacent to their property.
Sidewalk Condition
In November 2023, City staff briefed the Land Use and Environment Committee (LUEC), a City Council committee, on the City's approach to sidewalk repair. The Committee requested that staff do an inventory of sidewalk condition to better understand the extent of sidewalk damage citywide before developing a broader policy to approach repairing sidewalks.
Over the summer of 2024, a contractor did this inventory, identifying nearly 28,000 unique areas of sidewalk damage. They categorized these areas by type and severity level.
Staff briefed the LUEC and the BPAC on the results of this inventory in April and May.
Capital Investments
In 2024, the City used $450,000 in capital funds to repair 19 sites of sidewalk damage throughout the city. Also last year, City crews repaired 25 sites of damage. This data is useful in considering a path forward for addressing sidewalk repair, because it allows us to better understand the costs of repair, both when we do it in-house and when we hire an ou...
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