Agenda - 10-06-2011 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 pay for construction costs (or portions thereof, in certain cases) and assume maintenance and liability for the sidewalk. Orange County (as well as most, if not all, counties in North Carolina) does not maintain local streets within its jurisdiction; public roadways are part of the State Maintained System. In municipalities, streets are generally maintained by a municipal public works staff and the municipality has the staff and equipment to do so. Municipalities receive some funding from the State through the Powell -Bill to perform this task. Any necessary sidewalk maintenance (if sidewalks are provided within the municipality) is achieved by either the public works staff or, more recently, by a Homeowners Association (HOA) or Property Owners Association (POA) if the HOA or POA is a party to the required maintenance agreement between the local government and NCDOT. Existing Development vs. New Development Providing sidewalks in areas that are already devebped is a particular challenge. A local government may require, through its zoning or subdivision regulations, that new development provide a sidewalk (either within the road right-of-way or on private property via an easement). A local govemment may- also require that the property owner(s) maintain the sidewalk, although this becomes more difficult to achieve in the absence of an HOA or POA. The issue of liability needs to be addressed but very few, if any, property owners seem willing to take on liability of a sidewalk for public use, even if located within an easement on their property. The local government would likely have to accept any liability for the sidewalk. In the case of existing development, especially if there is not an existing HOA or POA, construction and maintenance of sidewalks is more difficult. Funding for construction of a sidewalk must come from the local government, with the potential for some cost sharing with NCDOT (see materials in Attachment 2 for potential cost sharing information [pages 10 through 15 -bottom of page - in particular]). The local government may use funds from its General Fund, designated bond funds, Powell Bill Funds (if the local government receives funding from this source), or by a special assessment district of property owners within the benefit area. Additionally, limited grant funding may be available from various sources, depending on the situation_ UNC Chapel Hill. School of Government has a useful publication that is part of its County and Municipal Government in North Carolina series. The article is "Article 40 -Transportation, Street Parking, Public Transportation, and Airports" and it is viewable free of charge (but not printable) at: http://sogpubs.unc.edu/cmg/cmg40.pdf. Pages 7 through 10 of the publication are particularly helpful in understanding sidewalk issues. North Carolina Counties Planning staff queried a Planning ListServ for information about sidewalks outside of municipal areas in North Carolina. The responses show that a handful of North Carolina counties have one or two sidewalks within their jurisdiction that are not part of a residential subdivision. In many cases, the sidewalks were constructed to provide access to a school and were paid for using local, NCDOT, and/or grant funds (some. local match was required for almost all of the projects). The sidewalks are maintained by agreement with an adjacent or nearby municipality or a county public works staff (Chatham County). Additionally, some counties have sidewalks in residential subdivisions that were constructed by the developer and are maintained by the HOA.