DENVER — The Mile High City is getting another step closer to having safer and more accessible sidewalks. Denver City Council approved a $15 million contract to help with the development of a master plan.
This comes years after Denver voters approved the Denver Deserves Sidewalks initiative, which shifted the responsibility of sidewalk maintenance from private property owners to the city and established a citywide fee to fund the work. Jill Locantore, executive director for Denver Streets Partnership, explained the delay in moving the program forward.
"Voters approved the Denver Deserve Sidewalk Initiative in the fall of 2022. There was a little bit of delay in implementing it because city council wanted to change the way the fee was assessed to property owners, so that was about a two-year process to consider different alternative ways of assessing the fee," Locantore said.
Denver City Council approved a $150 annual flat fee where property owners with 230 linear feet or less would pay this fee. According to the city, this fee applies to 95% of all property owners in Denver and about 99% of single-family homes in Denver. Properties with more than 230 linear feet will pay an additional impact fee of $3.50 for every foot over that length.
Starting in January, the city began charging property owners the sidewalk fee, which was included on people's stormwater bills. Locantore said the sidewalk fees are supposed to generate around $40 million a year.
"About 40% of our streets have missing or substandard sidewalks, and a huge percentage of the existing sidewalks are in really poor, unsafe condition, so the Denver voters clearly conveyed that they feel like sidewalks is a basic thing that we should have in every neighborhood, and that we're all willing to chip in to make that happen," Locantore said.
This past week, Jeff Helgerson, who lives in west Denver, noticed the charge.
"I know it's been a couple of years since we passed the initiative, so it's always good to see stuff start happening. The gears in government can move a little slowly sometimes, but it's good to see stuff actually taking place," Helgerson said.
The sidewalks are narrow in Helgerson's neighborhood, so he hopes this will help make the sidewalks wider and more accessible for all in the area.
"I definitely think it's time, it's just not a feasible network for people to get around in. I mean, you couldn't even take a wheelchair on these sidewalks, so if you're disabled, you're kind of just out of luck, right now," Helgerson explained.
This new on-call professional services contract with HNTB will help with program management support and the citywide master plan, which will help identify where sidewalks are needed or where repairs should be.
"This is a massive undertaking, so the city needs to have a pretty well thought-out plan of attack, and that's what the contract was that was just approved recently by city council, it's coming up with that overall plan for addressing the build out of the sidewalks," Locantore said.
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