Make your Community Walk Able with Sidewalks
Municipalities
are always looking for funding options to pay for sidewalks. Sustainable and walk
able communities are important. In fact the communities we live in are a
lifestyle choice. Where we live are more than a place to exist, they are places
that you can grow and enjoy life. This means that the way a community is
planned, derived, and developed is important to the people that are attracted
to live there. I found this report done by Mark Fenton in 2003, and it is an
organized approach to funding sidewalks. Some of the information is dated;
however the approach is very good. I hope you find it usable as you work to
improve your walk able community.
Jeremy Shaffer, Highland County Commissioner
Important Note. The recommended standard
for sidewalks is a five-foot minimum width,
with a planting strip or other separation from
the roadway (preferably two feet or more)
when possible. A six-inch vertical curb is
preferred to assure vehicles do not park on
the walkway, and it’s absolutely mandatory if
the sidewalk is at the curb edge to enhance
safety by providing at least some separation
between pedestrians and traffic. Similar
guidelines can be found for trails, crosswalks,
and bicycle lanes. Start at
www.pedbikeinfo.org.
How Do We
Pay for Sidewalks (and Other
Infrastructure)
?
Funding Healthier Places for Walking and Cycling:
7 Strategies
By Mark Fenton
Communities across North America
use a variety of strategies to finance
pedestrian and bicycle network
improvements. The most successful
communities do not appear to rely on
just one funding source, but creatively
utilize a mix of tools and approaches
depending on their state or province,
to make both immediate and long-term
progress on their facility needs.
First is a summary list of seven
possible approaches; they are then
outlined in further detail below, with
some relevant contact information.
1. Routine accommodation. Require complete streets, accommodating
pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders on absolutely all new construction
and redevelopment.
2. Opportunistic improvement. Build sidewalks at reduced cost during other
construction activities (sewers, underground utility work, road resurfacing).
3. Mitigation and impact fees for new development. Require all
proposed developments to study the full transportation impacts of a project. In
other words, not just motor-vehicle traffic impacts, but also pedestrian,
bicycle, and transit travel modes. Then either:
a. Require the developer to construct non-motorized facilities (e.g.
sidewalks bike lanes, trails) to nearby, off-site destinations (schools,
shopping, etc.) to mitigate those impacts. Or . . .
$ $
Funding Overview
© Mark Fenton 2003
b. Charge development impact fees to mitigate the impacts through
improved pedestrian, bicycle, and transit facilities.
4. Grant Programs and transportation funds. Utilize state and
federal resources. E.g.
•
The Transportation Enhancements (TE) Program.
•
Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds
•
Transit Oriented Development grants.
•
Safe Routes to School program
•
Highway safety funds of the Surface Transportation program
•
Recreational Trail funds; Greenways and Trails Demonstration
Grants.
5. Betterments, Special Improvement Districts, Tax Increment
Financing. Charge adjacent property owners, or a general neighborhood or
business district for construction or improvement of sidewalks, trail, bicycle
parking, or other facilities based on the need and increased access and value
for those landowners.
6. Special funding & resources. Foundations, corporate sponsorships,
service groups, and adopt-a-trail and “friends” organizations can all provide
funding or in-kind support for creation or maintenance of facilities such as
trails, paths, and open space. This can include funding endowments for the
long-term maintenance of facilities.
7. Capital improvements. Many cities and towns have a small but regular
portion of the budget annually dedicated to sidewalk, pathway, and bike lane
construction and maintenance.
But most importantly, when considering these seven strategies, it is vital that
your community develops a plan. Most successful communities first invest in an
inventory of current facilities and needs. They then develop a non-motorized
network plan, which includes an assessment of priorities, often engaging a
professional planning and design firm in the process. Such outside professional
assistance can be valuable in four ways:
•
First, planners and transportation engineers have somewhat sophisticated
means of assessing the potential demand for non-motorized travel in an
area based on the nature of trip generators (schools, churches shopping),
proximity of other uses (residential clusters) and facilities that might be
Funding Overview
© Mark Fenton 2003
installed, such as sidewalks, crossings, and bike lanes. Some of these
facilities--say, a signalized mid-block crossing--require somewhat
specialized design skills in the pedestrian/bicycle field to conceive
properly.
•
Second, a private firm can dispassionately set priorities, avoiding the
political pressures that might be-devil a community-based group. This is
not to suggest that anyone would act in bad faith, but it simply avoids
anyone ending up in the challenging position of telling neighbors their
sidewalk is low on the priority list.
•
Third, grant applications are often reviewed more favorably when they are
part of a plan, rather than as simply stand-alone projects.
•
Fourth, good firms can also provide very good insight and
recommendations on sources of funding for the high priority projects on
the plan.
7 Strategies in Detail:
1. Routine accommodation. Critical to assuring a town ends up with a
complete network of sidewalks, every board (but especially planning, zoning,
and city council) have to make it standard practice that absolutely all new
construction and redevelopment have sidewalks and trails that will tie into the
current
and future network of facilities in town. Successful towns establish an
unwavering consistency on this, or the system will never truly be complete.
2. Opportunistic improvement. During any maintenance, upgrades, or other
infrastructure work proximal to the roadways or utility corridors many towns
make it a matter of course to repair and upgrade existing sidewalks, bicycle
lanes, and trails, or to install missing sections. This includes such work as
sewers, underground utilities, power line corridors, and even routine road
resurfacing, because the marginal cost of sidewalk installation and repair is
much less when there is work already being done in the right-of-way.
3. Off-site mitigation for new development. Increasingly communities are
requiring new developments to construct sidewalk facilities outside the actual
boundaries of development if there is a likely negative transportation impact
resulting from that development. For example, a new housing development
that is within the “no bus service” radius of a school and lacking a sidewalk
connection to that school will clearly cause an adverse increase in the
Funding Overview
© Mark Fenton 2003
number of motor vehicles dropping off and picking up students at the school;
many parents simply won’t allow a child to walk in the roadway. This is an
estimable negative impact on the transport network, increasing congestion
and reducing safety at the school. A comparable case can be made regarding
housing developments proximal to other trip generators such as shopping and
transit stations. In such cases, towns have required developers to complete
some or all of the sidewalk, trail, or path network connecting the development
to the destination to mitigate the negative impacts of the new construction.
4. Impact fees. All new development induces increased traffic flow that
increases congestion, air and water quality impacts, wear on the roadway
system, and burdens on public services (police traffic enforcement,
emergency response, schools, etc.). An approach to mitigating those negative
impacts is to assess a standard impact fee (say, so many dollars per 1,000
square feet of residential or business space) that is dedicated to improving
the non-motorized transportation network in the community, to help remediate
for those broad transportation impacts of the new development. (A portion of
such fees might also be dedicated to schools and public safety, for example.)
There is great benefit to having a set impact fee rate in by-laws so that the
permit granting boards and developers have a clear understanding from the
start of the magnitude of the anticipated fee.
5. Grant Programs. There are an increasing number of grant opportunities
that your town can pursue to aid in funding sidewalk construction; in general
applications are viewed more favorably when the proposed work is not just a
“spot fix’ but is part of an adopted plan for improvement, such as a
community-wide sidewalk plan. Here are four examples
•
Transit Oriented Development. Some states have funds for building
facilities that will encourage walking and cycling to transit facilities such as
bus stops or train stations to ease traffic and environmental impacts of
new development.
•
Safe Routes to School. A new federal fund, administered through the new
state Safe Routes to School program through state DOT, for
improvements that increase cycling and walking to schools. The total
available dollars are modest but can be used for critical connections, such
as improving key crossings in the sidewalk system, or to launch programs
that will develop community support for further work.
•
Transportation Enhancements Program. Federally funded and
administered through the state DOT, these often substantial grants have
been used widely for construction of rail-trails and similar facilities around
Funding Overview
© Mark Fenton 2003
the country, as well as pedestrian and bicycle improvements in critical
areas such as waterfronts, near transit stations, and in or near
redeveloping business districts.
•
Recreational Trail funds; Greenways and Trails Demonstration Grants.
Another portion of federal transportation funding typically administered
through state departments of conservation or natural resources, the first
provides for actual construction, the second for planning and design.
These grants can be used for multi-use pathways that provide
transportation, not just recreational, functions.
6. Betterments, Special Improvement Districts, etc. Research has
established that the presence of sidewalks tends to increase adjacent
property values and provide an immediate access improvement to those
properties, as well as the broader public benefits of increasing non-motorized
travel and reducing negative traffic impacts. As such, some communities
charge the adjacent property owner or an entire area or district for the direct
cost of sidewalk construction as a betterment, not unlike paying for the cost of
a sewer hook-up. Like sewers and similar public works, the process is often
bonded by the municipality; in some cases property owners pay back their
portion over time, or if in an “improvement district” pay through a time-defined
tax surcharge. Sometimes communities require that property owners cover
only a portion of the cost, making the difference up with other resources listed
here.
7. Capital improvements. Most communities have at least a modest annual
budget for non-motorized facility maintenance and construction. This might
include, for example, sidewalk construction, trail maintenance, crosswalk and
bike lane re-painting. Though the sum might not be large, and only enough to
construct several thousands or even just hundreds of feet of sidewalk per
year, over time it is a significant contribution to building the network. Further,
this can be an important source of funding in providing the local matching
funds that may be required for grant funding (such as an enhancement grant,
which typically requires at least a 10% local match). This can also be
combined with charging local betterments and collected impact fees, or in
concert with required mitigation work by developers, to create a more
complete system of facilities.
The most important lesson from my work around the country is that the truly
successful communities are taking advantage of most, if not all of these
approaches.
Funding Overview
© Mark Fenton 2003
Resources:
Technical guidance: www.pedbikeinfo.org
Safe Routes to School: www.saferoutesinfo.org
Complete Streets campaign: www.completestreets.org
Local Government Commission: www.lgc.org
Canadian Active Living & Environment campaign: www.goforgreen.ca
Victoria Transportation Policy Institute: www.vtpi.org
Active Living by Design program: www.ActiveLivingbyDesign.org
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