Cedar Rapids City Council to discuss ‘more sensitive’ sidewalk program

CEDAR RAPIDS - A significant revision could be forthcoming to an initiative to line every street in Cedar Rapids with sidewalks.

The sidewalk plan was met with as much criticism as praise from residents who scoffed at the cost and impact to their neighborhoods. On Tuesday, staff are proposing a policy shift that would prioritize when and where sidewalks are installed and would lessen the cost for owners of properties adjoining new sidewalk installations.

'I still feel sidewalks are important for livable communities, but it's important to prioritize how and where we construct sidewalks,” said Jen Winter, director of the Cedar Rapids public works department. 'We won't automatically do sidewalks with every road project.”

City staff plan to ask City Council members to approve changes when it meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 101 First St. SE. It can be approved with a simple majority vote, Winter said.

Cedar Rapids adopted its sidewalk policy in 2010 and updated it in 2014. The plan was crafted in response to feedback calling for a more walkable, safe, pedestrian-friendly city that encouraged exercise and offered other ways to get around beside motor vehicles.

Over the years, the city had seen periods with lapses in developments including sidewalks. The plan was to reconnect the city, fill in gaps and lay sidewalk in neighborhoods that had been passed over.

Sidewalk connectivity has been seen as a selling point in attracting and retaining younger residents in Cedar Rapids, and older neighborhoods with homes priced in the 'starter home” range have some of the biggest gaps for sidewalks.

If the new plan is approved Tuesday, two key elements will change.

First, residential property owners adjacent to a new sidewalk would no longer be charged, unless agreements already are in place or designs are in an advanced stage. Under the existing policy, adjacent residential property owners split the cost 50-50 with the city, which comes out to $1,000 to $2,000 on average. Commercial or industrial property owners would see their cost share with the city decline from 75 percent to 50-50.

Second, city officials plan to prioritize sidewalk installations based on connectivity to schools, parks, commerce and public transit, and de-emphasize sidewalks simply for recreation. As is, sidewalk installations are considered on every Paving for Progress street repair project, when feasible, with hopes of long-term savings and less disruption by tackling two projects at once.

In the next year, staff members plan to create a new sidewalk prioritization list to guide future projects based on the new criteria, Winter said.

The existing policy has led to testy confrontations with residents in the city questioning the wisdom of sidewalks in their area or fretting the loss of neighborhood character.

One example is along 34th Street SE, which is a road without sidewalks between Cottage Grove Avenue SE and Mount Vernon Road SE.

City planners were working on a culvert replacement over Spoon Creek and planned to include an ‘L' shape sidewalk with short segments on 34th and Cottage Grove. City officials had said the sidewalk eventually would connect to Bever Park and Mount Vernon Road.

Neighbors pushed back saying their wooded street would lose its character by cutting down trees and adding retaining walls. Plus, the sidewalk made little sense because it didn't connect to anything and wouldn't for years, residents said. They dubbed it the 'sidewalk to nowhere.”

Under the revised sidewalk plan, the city plans to move forward with replacing the deteriorating culvert, but the sidewalks have been eliminated and won't be reconsidered anytime soon, Winter said.

'I am very grateful for the city's flexibility, glad they recognize each neighborhood has a unique character that should be preserved, and I'm glad they are receptive to input from citizens,” said Robert Nassif, who lives on 34th Street SE and was among the most vocal opponents. 'It would have been horrifying if they had gone through with it.”

Scott Olson, a City Council member who was involved in discussions about the policy change as part of the infrastructure committee, said city officials are not slowing down their efforts to add sidewalks but rather are taking a more sensible approach that should avoid some of the confrontations with residents.

He said he's heard from people who resisted sidewalks only to acknowledge after installation they were getting a lot of use. Still, the new approach makes more sense, he said.

Forty percent of the city doesn't' have sidewalks, Olson noted, so there's plenty of work to do. For example, this year's C Avenue NE repair work near Collins Road includes new sidewalks because it meets the criteria.

'This attacks sidewalks where it makes a difference to the general public versus just placing sidewalks everywhere,” Olson said. 'Yes, we are learning, and yes it is going to continue at a rapid pace, but we are going to be more sensitive with where we put sidewalks.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3177; brian.morelli@thegazette.com