The Frederick Public Works Committee met on March 24, 2026, beginning at 9:00 AM, to discuss sidewalk maintenance and repair policies, and to receive presentations from the Affordable Housing Council and the Frederick Housing Solutions Task Force regarding affordable housing strategies. The meeting included detailed discussions on current sidewalk repair programs, funding sources, and policy recommendations for increasing the supply of deeply affordable housing. Public comments were also heard.
Public works committee will begin with a Pledge of Allegiance. Oh, well, thank you all for attending and uh Tracy and Nicole. It would be great if you could lead off with a discussion on sidewalks. Good afternoon. Councilmember Brem Shackleford and Hemplerani. Nice to be here today. First time before the Public Works Committee. So this is this is fun. So I'm here today. Tracy Coleman, Director of Public Works, by the way. We are here to background on the our code and policy funding sources and assistance programs that we have in place right now for sidewalk repair and maintenance. And then we'll give a just a brief overview of our sidewalk conditions survey and inventory project that is nearing completion. So with that, I don't have a presentation, but I provided a bunch of information in the executive summary. In that I provided the entire section, Article 2, Sidewalks, which is Chapter 22, and it starts on uh in section 22-23 and talks about construction by property owners. Um we're not probably not here to discuss that much today, but just uh some of this stuff is just so that you're aware this exists. Um the construction by property owners, we have utilized that um some in the past. Um the code section itself says if there is a street to grade, then the city engineer can compel the property owner to construct a sidewalk. And um we don't do it often, and street to grade basically means that there's a street there, there's curb and gutter, and then the grade or the you know the land right next to the curb is basically where a sidewalk could be. So a property owner wouldn't have to grade it in any way, shape, or form. They could just call someone and say, place sidewalk, and then that that contractor could come in and place sidewalk in accordance with our standards. So that's what that is. Um like I said, we we haven't utilized that very much, um, but we can if there is a place with missing sidewalk and it's to grade. Um what we're mostly here to talk about, I think, um, is sections 22-24 and 25, um, which is the responsibility of a property owner to maintain the sidewalk that is um adjacent to their property. Um the code specifically says binding thereon, and I just want to clear something up that that is it is very much an engineering and surveying profession phrase. It's a very old phrase, it's really not used very much, but basically it means adjacent. So a lot of people will wonder, hey, the sidewalks in the public right-of-way, why do I have to fix it? Um it's just because of how properties were how right of way was established a long time ago, and what is considered um uh an adjacent property owner's responsibility for that. So the policy says that um the property owner is responsible for installation repair, maintenance um of the sidewalk. Um I think most property owners are okay with general maintenance, you know, cleaning off leaves, cleaning off snow, those types of things. Um may be surprised um when they receive a notice of repair to say your sidewalk is uh uh is not compliant with um ADA, which means it's it's it's unlevel, it's um there's it's broken so that there's big gaps in it. Um, but but that's the section of code that we refer to. Um with respect to policy, I provided you with a policy that was adopted. Um it was there are actually guidelines that were adopted in order to enforce these sections of the code. Um and they were originally adopted in 2001. Um and it gives just much clearer guidance on what our uh city staff do to inspect what criteria means or what it means to be out of compliance. Um let me see um I want to insult you by reading it, but I'm gonna read just a little bit so that it's out there. So our inspector determines um whether or not a sidewalk has a variance of a half inch or more and it's in violation. Um that half inch comes directly from ADA code. Um if you have a travel way that's you know for pedestrians or those that are um in some other um have challenges with mobility, a half an inch is a lot. It doesn't look like a lot if you're if you're not um challenged um, but it's a lot. So that's that's the the criteria that our inspector uses to determine whether a sidewalk is out of compliance. Up until um a couple of years ago, all of our sidewalk repair was a remove and replace in order to level it out or ensure that that half inch issue didn't exist. Um I'm skipping ahead a little bit. Um see. Thank you. Yep. So in um July of 2024, um, the council created a CIP called the EEA Equity Emphasis Area Sidewalk Repair Program in R CIP. Um as part of that program, the city, our staff has uh contracted with a company that uses a technology to basically I'm gonna call it shave, that's not the official like non-engineering term, but precision use a precision cutting method to cut down that half inch or or maybe sometimes a little bit more. They have a they have a certain amount that they can cut um and still leave the sidewalk in a condition that it won't deteriorate, you know, any time too soon, um, but leaving the sidewalk in compliance, um, getting rid of that um that gap or that rise or that unlevel condition. Um I talked really briefly about um the application of the code and the policy.