City to turn to community for sidewalk input

Jan. 19--The city of Austin will look to the public for help on how it should bring its sidewalk intersections into compliance with the American Disabilities Act (ADA).

Public Works Director Steven Lang reported the results of a city evaluation to the City Council on Tuesday that found 1,237 of its 2,013 sidewalk pedestrian ramps are in some way non-compliant with ADA standards.

Through the inventory completed over the summer, the city ranked them in four categories: 437 are compliant; 307 are nearly compliant with minor defects; 907 are non-compliant quadrants with no truncated domes and improper grades; and 330 are non-complaint with no curb opening, no truncated dome and improper grades.

"We've got a lot of work," City Administrator Craig Clark said.

Those also present some hefty costs.

The 330 pedestrian corners with no curb ramps would cost an estimated $2.2 million to replace at once, but many of those will likely be up for replacement in the next 10 years since the roads are about 50 years old, according to Lang.

The remaining 907 non-compliant corners would cost about $5.5 million to replace, and those were constructed in the 1980s or 1990s to the standards of the day, Lang said.

"We need to have a plan in moving forward on how we're going to address these," Lang said.

Despite high price tags for repairs and replacements, Lang said there isn't much funding available for such programs. Some will be up for a portion of state aid, but many of the curb ramps fall in old, residential areas and won't fall in state aid roads.

Since the city doesn't assess adjoining property owners to help fund pedestrian ramps, most of the cost would come from the tax levy.

The city's current plan is to address these issues during street reconstructions. The city also address sidewalk issues more quickly for hazards and it'll investigate them for complaints.

But the city is evaluating how it does this and looking into forming a new plan for addressing these issues.

If the city continues to make these changes through street projects, about 270 of the non-compliant quadrants will be replaced, based on the city's five-year capital improvement plan.

But others are probably 20 years away from reconstruction.

"It may be a while before we start to get into those, so we may need to come up with a different plan for how we correct those," Lang said.

Next, the city will continue its self evaluation by gathering input from the community, and Lang said they could host public meetings, organize targeted meetings with people affected by compliant curb ramps or seeking input through the city's social media or website.

Lang anticipates this will happen over the next six months.

Council member Laura Helle and Mayor Tom Stiehm questioned if the city could form a 10-year plan for addressing the pedestrian corners but only address them based on available funding, but Lang said not completing the curbs based on the plans if the funding isn't made available could make the city liable to a lawsuit for not meeting its plan.

Most communities are facing similar issues with curb ramps, according to Lang. The city doesn't necessarily face a firm deadline on this, but Lang said the city needs to form a realistic plan.

Asked his opinion on how the city should form a plan, Lang noted he'll look at efforts in other communities, and he noted some have been forced to address these rapidly based on legal challenges.

Council member Janet Anderson argued it may be more prudent to address more high-traffic, high-use intersections first, especially those near Austin High School or leading from the high school to high-traffic areas.

After the public meetings and input, Lang will come back to the council sometime in the fall.

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