Wait no more: Council vote sets up Denver to start collecting sidewalk fees in January

After months of behind-the-scenes debate and fine-tuning, the Denver City Council on Monday gave an initial green light to significant changes to how the public works department will bill Denverites to pay for the city-led sidewalk repair and construction program.

That means doing away with annual fees that would have been charged to property owners based on the size of their lots in favor of a — mostly — flat rate that would charge the largest properties extra money.

But even as the council voted 13-0 to approve the changes on first reading Monday night, members noted that the heavy lifting — including future rounds of property acquisition needed to widen sidewalks in places where they are too narrow today — is still years in the future.

“I am looking forward to the implementation aspect of this because I think there’s a lot of challenges there as well,” Councilman Kevin Flynn said before voting yes on Monday.

Flynn opposed the 2022 ballot measure but also served on the task force that came up with the program changes considered on Monday night.

Pending the outcome of a second and final council vote next week, the city Department of Transportation and Infrastructure will get to work setting up the first round of bills for a program that voters approved almost two years ago in November 2022. Fee collections were delayed for a full year to allow the stakeholder committee to complete its work.

As outlined in a staff presentation, property owners should expect to see sidewalk fees included as part of their semi-annual wastewater bills starting in the first half of next year. For more than 95% of homes and commercial properties, those charges will be $75 per bill or $150 for the entire year.

But for some property owners with large lots — like Belcaro neighborhood resident Thomas Herrington, who spoke as part of a public hearing Monday night — those bills could be significantly higher.

In order to keep the program revenue neutral so that it will bring in the roughly $40 million per year voters signed off on in 2022, the task force suggested extra fees for large lots. Any property — including city parks and public schools — with more than 230 linear feet of property frontage would pay an extra $3.50 per foot.

For Herrington, whose property doesn’t have a sidewalk today, that means bills of roughly $2,400 per year, he estimated.

He agreed larger lots should pay more, but not 16 times as much as the standard rate.

“All I’m asking is that larger lots should pay more but that it be a reasonable amount in relation to the fees that are being charged,” he said,

Councilman Paul Kashmann, whose east Denver district includes Belcaro, indicated the further tweaks may be coming. He also served on the stakeholder committee, which will be reconvening this year.

For now, Kashmann is excited progress is finally being made on a program that transfers the responsibility for sidewalk conditions from property owners to the city.

“This is an issuance policy where everyone pitches in and if any sidewalk gets messed up the city will come in and fix it,” he said.

In addition to changes to the fee structure, the council signed off on the following other changes Monday:

• Rebates will now be provided to low-income homeowners based on whether they have applied and qualify for discounts to the city’s trash collection program. Households making 60% or less of the area median income could see half or even all of their fees wiped out.

• Apartment building owners can qualify for 20% discounts if at least a quarter of the units in their buildings are income-restricted affordable housing.

• Fees will now go up annually based on a formula that factors in a combination of general consumer and construction-industry-specific inflation rates.

• While voters approved a program in 2022 that suggested work could be completed in nine years, that language will now be changed to “in nine years or as soon thereafter” as deemed feasible by city transportation officials.