GENEVA \u2014 Last fall, City Council approved a nine-month moratorium on enforcing the city\u2019s sidewalk ordinance, which puts the responsibility of maintenance on the property owner. The moratorium was approved to give the city time to examine potential policy changes after hearing concerns from over 50 homeowners who received notices that they needed to repair their sidewalks or that the city would do so.<\/p>\n
There were suggestions of selective enforcement, as many of those receiving the letters were homeowners in the same area. The city denied that was the case, but added that the letters sent ordering sidewalk repairs followed complaints from one pedestrian.<\/p>\n
The nine-month moratorium is over, and city residents cited last fall are getting new letters, said Steve Chilbert, who went to last Wednesday\u2019s City Council meeting to express concerns. He said the letter was \u201cbasically the same letter as last year: \u2018You have 60 days to repair your sidewalks.\u2019\u201d The only difference: This time, there was no language that the city would do the repairs if the homeowner didn\u2019t, and a 50% surcharge was not mentioned.<\/p>\n
The letter was a disappointment, Chilbert said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little bit excited (prior to opening the letters) to see what it had to say, expecting it to be, \u2018We had the meetings. We applied for the grants, and this is what we\u2019ve come up with,\u2019 where instead it was the same exact letter as nine months ago,\u201d Chilbert said. \u201cThe only thing that has happened is nine months have passed. \u2026 So here we are, nine months later and nothing has changed except now the (cost) estimates are more. My mother\u2019s corner lot \u2014 $15,000 last year was the estimate. That has gone up.\u201d<\/p>\n
With \u201chigher costs and really no resolution,\u201d Chilbert urged Council to meet on this and have discussions and \u201ccome up with something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Actually, City Council did follow up with the issue after approving the moratorium.<\/p>\n
Assistant City Manager Taylor Youngs, who researched possible options, provided some to City Council at a meeting in October:<\/p>\n
Maintain the current sidewalk policy, but improve communication methods with homeowners.Maintain current policy but offer \u201ctargeted financial assistance\u201d for hardship cases.Make sidewalks part of the city\u2019s capital improvement program, just like streets.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Council took no action following her presentation, and City Manager Amie Hendrix confirmed that to the Times in a March story on sidewalk snow removal and repair issues on Exchange Street.<\/p>\n
Council did not respond to Chilbert at the meeting, but Mayor Jim Cecere told the Times Friday the city will look for potential assistance for homeowners having difficulty affording sidewalk repairs.<\/p>\n
He said Council has reaffirmed \u201cthe existing sidewalk policy, which puts the responsibility for the maintenance on the property owner. This decision keeps Geneva in line with the vast majority of other municipalities in New York. However, City Council isn\u2019t blind to the financial burden these repairs can place on our citizens. We have heard those concerns from those who are struggling to meet these requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m asking our city staff to look at grants or other state-level opportunities to see if we can help provide financial relief. The city itself is not in a financial position to provide assistance. This will take time, however, and it\u2019s not a guarantee that we will be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2014 Last fall, City Council approved a nine-month moratorium on enforcing the city\u2019s sidewalk ordinance, which puts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[34185,65,27142,34970,2521,69,20705],"class_list":{"0":"post-64042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-city-council","9":"tag-geneva","10":"tag-geneva-city","11":"tag-home-insurance","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-sidewalk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116561593438034877","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}