WAUPACA COUNTY POST

November 14, 2002

Proposal Would Require Sidewalks in All New Developments in Waupaca

By Angie Landsverk, Post Staff Writer.

A change in Waupaca’s sidewalk policy is being recommended to the Board of Public Works.

If approved as proposed, builders would have to install public sidewalks in front of their lots before homeowner occupancy.

Public Works Director John Edlebeck is making the recommendation to the board.

When the city’s newly appointed Citywide Sidewalk Ad Hoc Committee met last Wednesday afternoon, the staff recommendation was discussed.

"I suggest that you think about this for a month and see next month what you want to do," Edlebeck said.

Presently, the city has development agreements with the developers of subdivision that give the city the right to install sidewalks within those subdivisions once 75 percent of the lots have been sold.

"This process has led to homes being built, those lots being graded and driveways installed without either the horizontal or vertical consideration for the future installation of public sidewalks," Edlebeck said in a memo to the Board of Public Works. "This policy then requires the new sidewalk installation to be retrofitted into the existing parkway, causing substantial regarding of yards, butting up of sidewalks to driveways, relocation of plantings and a less than preferred sidewalk design in some areas. I think that the current process by which we require sidewalks be installed in new subdivisions needs to be revised if we still support sidewalk construction in new development."

He explains in the memo that two subdivisions – Swan Ridge Subdivision and Sun Ridge Subdivision – are solely owned by the original developers.

Edlebeck is suggesting that the city modify its policy on sidewalk installation in new subdivisions and require that this policy be implemented, beginning with these developments.

Installing sidewalks in this manner would result in the lot being graded to match the sidewalk at the time of home construction.

The sidewalk would run through the driveway, providing for an adequately sloped safe concrete sidewalk.

The yard would not have to be dug up again at a later date to install the sidewalk, and the sidewalk would be installed before or at the time that the driveway was installed.

The city would inspect the sidewalk at the time of construction, and any offsite sidewalk could be installed by the developer or by the city and assessed to all properties through the assessment process.

The ad hoc committee, appointed by Mayor Brian Smith to come up with a concept of how to handle sidewalks in the future, will not only look at the subdivisions but at existing areas in Waupaca where there are gaps between sidewalks.

The first thing the committee will do is an assessment of the city, looking at each quqrter of Waupaca and studying the pedestrian and traffic uses.

When the Board of Public Works met following the ad hoc committee meeting, Edlebeck briefly talked to the board about the recommendation for sidewalks in subdivisions.

"The city I worked at, we put in 300 homes a year. That’s how it was done. The (present) procedure is a real problem from a construction standpoint," he said. "It’s a pretty substantial issue, because it will affect things happening now."