Yes, in cities where sidewalk access is essential for the handicapped, or for parents with strollers, it is enforced quite a lot. Probably not as important in the burbs, but in built up areas the rule is commonly enforced. I suspect it is on the books everywhere in the US.
Some of you may not be aware (:dubious:), but my wife is blind. We also live a half-mile walk from the local Braille Institute. Seriously. Same street and everything. When she still had a guide dog, kaylasmom could walk to the Braille Institute on sidewalks ONLY by walking from our apartment complex in the OPPOSITE direction from Braille, crossing our street at a busy intersection, turning around and walking the half mile to the NEXT intersection, and crossing our street again (fortunately THIS intersection, being at the Institute, has a talking crosswalk signal).
The reason for this state of affairs? The last three houses before arriving at the Institute have overgrown footpaths (the safe navigability of which are questionable, at best), and to “preserve the quasi-rural character of the neighborhood,” the city had elected to not obtain easements and install sidewalks.
My suggestion to the OP is to lobby for sidewalks on BOTH sides of the street, starting with the side that DOES allow parking.
I live in a similar neighborhood - I think - 70s houses with no traffic. I’m also a daily walker in my neighborhood, with two dogs. I’m not even that old (yet) and I would vote down sidewalks.
The large street that comes before our neighborhood recently got a sidewalk on one side. It’s great! I see people walking on it all day every day, where previously it was impossible to walk down that street at all. Since there’s a school on that street, it’s great for the kids who have to walk! And it didn’t really impede the homeowners there - they have much bigger lots than we do.
But still, I don’t think sidewalks are needed on my street. Probably not on your street either. And I’m on city council and all for improvements and stuff!
Like you said someone just brought it up to the city, they are throwing the idea out there, and if people want it then they’ll do it.
People ask me all the time about sidewalks. I tell them the city definitely can’t ever afford sidewalks where they’re asking for them. But they can petition the city to make a proposal like you have and get a vote to assess the neighborhoods to get them installed. No one ever goes that far. But if they did, I’m sure they’d be unhappy with the assessment price. And the distance into the lot. And the maintenance being on the homeowner.
I think you will do well by canvassing your neighbors and sharing your concerns. And to be honest…if you go talk to your neighbors, and they have a good case for the sidewalks, they may change your mind!
Definitely talk to your neighbors. Enumerate the issues you see with the plan. Know you did everything you could to get people to see your way and if it doesn’t go your way, know that you live in a neighborhood and more people wanted it than didn’t. At least it wasn’t blindly imposed on you. * C’est la vie.*
It’s probably one of those things that is ignored until someone complains.
My brother-in-law was ticketed for parking in his own driveway outside his gate “blocking a driveway” in Queens many years ago–clearly a cop that needed some quota that day.
I think the “blocking the sidewalk” thing is similar to when cops ticket cars that are parked in the street facing the wrong direction (and they do).
I don’t like it when people block the sidewalk because I remember when I would go with my kids on our kick scooters to the park and we would have to deal with cars blocking our way. Sidewalks are very kid-friendly and I like them for that reason.
Nevertheless, it sucks when you moved to an area with a certain feature and they unilaterally take away that feature.
ETA: If things get to legal action and/or visits to city hall, the parking thing might be a strong card to play. It really will put you out, and it might be like how if I cut through my neighbor’s yard for 20 years straight I might be able to get an easement. Property laws are funny in that way.
Do you have an HOA? Ours has been instrumental in helping us oppose certain types of construction/zoning that attract unwanted elements.
They’ve been part of a larger grass-roots campaign to get most of the surrounding region zoned in a higher category to discourage apartments, multi-family (or duplex) units and also to require much larger yards, setbacks, and minimum home square footage. They helped fight sidewalk installation when the city proposed it during street resurfacing several years ago, and we were able to dodge that bullet. I’ve roamed through several of the new subdivisions under construction, and none seem to have sidewalks either, but I don’t know if that’s zoning or contractor preference.
My advice is to check with the HOA if you have one. A bunch of grumpy, retired, NIMBY old folks is what you need right now.
This is a small enough number that you should almost certainly start with going around and talking to all your neighbors and seeing where they stand.
Don’t start with your position, just be friendly and see what they think. You might find that people are already opposed (as you are), or that many people don’t have a strong opinion.
Introduce yourself, make note of the ones who are on the fence, and then you can later go back and try to convince them against sidewalks.
This strikes me as the kind of thing that plenty of people could be easily persuaded by neighborly communication.
It looks like those in this thread that are familiar with parking-on-sidewalk tickets live in big Northeastern U.S. cities. I’ll chalk this up as one of those not-in-New Orleans things.
Nitpick, but if it takes 50%+1 to approve, then you only need 50% (15 of 30) to block. I just made your job 6% easier!
One would guess that there are about 15 houses on your side of the street who would be directly impacted and, presumably, easier to convince to vote “No”. That’s where I would begin my efforts.
The most common arrangement is for the owner to own down to the street while the city holds a permanent easement of six to ten feet. The city still gets to do whatever they decide to do, but it doesn’t sound like they have a city reason for this particular sidewalk.
NIMFY?
The city always held that easement, for widening the street, for sidewalks, for maintenance, etc, etc.
Sidewalks are a net bonus. They improve your property values and you get to see who your neighbors are. And get to know the ones who don’t clean up after their dogs.
Watch the TV show “Parking Wars” - they’re always giving tickets on residential streets. Granted it’s generally an urban environment but they’re typically single family homes on those streets.
Seems like an odd situation, to have no parking on either side of a residential street. (OP first said no parking on his side, then later said street parking was prohibited.) It truly seems a hardship if there were no place for more than 1 guest car to park in your driveway or reasonably close. Our street is narrow enough that I wish they allowed parking on only 1 side… But there are sidewalks on both sides.
I’m a big fan of sidewalks. But I won’t try to convince you. The only thing you can do is try to work through the local government process. Express your dissatisfaction, attend meetings, collect signatures.
But my expectation is that whoever makes such decisions is going to make whatever the hell decision they want, no matter what you do. Further, there is some aspect of your local government that is responsible for projects like this. If they intend to install new sidewalks, they will need to request additional funds, hire/contract with additional staff. And after putting in the new sidewalks, they will have a tangible accomplishment to point to. Acceding to your wishes - no matter how reasonable - provides none of that. Just my cynical observation on how governments work.
Your best option might be to expand the width of your existing driveway, to provide more parking spaces.
FWIW - your concerns about dog walkers and bikers impress me as on the overblown side, but again, that is how you feel. Finally, in the 3 suburbs of Chicago where I’ve lived the past 35 years, there has been NO enforcement of parking over the sidewalk. We’ve discussed this many a time, and I will not repeat my ire here.
And unfortunately, maybe a sidewalk to maintain. I’ve seen cities do that. Sidewalk cracking or upheaving and now a tripping hazard? The homeowner has to repair it.
You might at least campaign to not have a planter strip installed between the sidewalk and curb. That, in my experience, always causes problems. It’s hard to maintain, people always want to plant trees there, and the roots destroy the gutter flow lines and sidewalks. Just have curb and sidewalk, and you’ll at least save 3.5 feet of your driveway.
You could try suing under ADA access issues, but if there’s an alternate path that may not work. Still, having a blind person have to cross the road twice would give some leverage.
Who would pay for this new sidewalk? In Michigan, the municipality would never pay for such a thing. They would impose a special assessment to make it happen. Since you speak of voting, I assume that the 15 houses are now part of a “special assessment district,” meaning that if approved, then each of those 15 homes would be subject to a temporary property tax increase (5 years? 10 years?) in order to pay for the sidewalks.
Oh, and the price won’t be cheap; it’s not like hiring your own contractor. The municipality will bid a few of its preferred suppliers, conduct engineering, and have to pay prevailing wage rather than competitive wages. Something you might be able to do yourself for $1000 might end up costing you $2000 in taxes and bond interest.
I appreciate the comments and feedback. It turns out that there are 26 houses involved in the petition. Strangely, the sidewalk would end at the next cross-street. IOW, it would only be on my block and not continuous through the neighborhood. (The cross-street it would end on does not have sidewalks in either direction.)
IF the petition is successful (a positive response from 14 households), there will be a public hearing. There is no special assessment for the sidewalk, but there is also no doubt that assessed property values will be raised and our taxes will increase a bit.
This is your angle. It’s much better & safer to have a sidewalk under street lights than across the street from it. Any potential tripping hazards are easier to see with light nearby.
According to this, you cannot park on the sidewalk in New Orleans. It’s not just big Northeastern cities - I’ve never been to any city where people were commonly parked blocking the sidewalk so that people couldn’t walk. * It seems to be a suburban thing. Although even in NYC you can probably get away with it for months in a residential neighborhood as long as no one complains. Which they will do if they can’t get their wheelchair down the street because your car is blocking the sidewalk.
- Don’t recall seeing it in New Orleans either- which of course doesn’t mean there weren’t any when I was there , but it certainly wasn’t every second house. If it was perfectly legal to park blocking the sidewalk in my neighborhood almost every driveway would have a car parked blocking the sidewalk. Because even if I didn’t need to park there myself, I could rent it to someone else for at least $100/month.
Bayaker, could you explain this comment to me? Is this a genuine restriction, or have I been wooshed? Just curious.
I don’t think it’s a legal restriction but a practical restriction , like the nearest store is 10 miles away or something similar.
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