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government receives funding from this source), or by a special assessment district of <br />property owners within the benefit area. Additionally, limited grant funding may be <br />available from various sources, depending on the situation. <br /> <br />UNC Chapel Hill School of Government has a useful publication that is part of its <br />County and Municipal Government in North Carolina series. The article is “Article 40 - <br />Transportation, Street Parking, Public Transportation, and Airports” and it is viewable <br />free of charge (but not printable) at: http://sogpubs.unc.edu/cmg/cmg40.pdf. Pages 7 <br />through 10 of the publication are particularly helpful in understanding sidewalk issues. <br /> <br />North Carolina Counties <br /> <br />Planning staff queried a Planning ListServ for information about sidewalks outside of <br />municipal areas in North Carolina. The responses show that a handful of North <br />Carolina counties have one or two sidewalks within their jurisdiction that are not part of <br />a residential subdivision. In many cases, the sidewalks were constructed to provide <br />access to a school and were paid for using local, DOT, and/or grant funds (some local <br />match was required for almost all of the projects). The sidewalks are maintained by <br />agreement with an adjacent or nearby municipality or a county public works crew <br />(Chatham County). Additionally, some counties have sidewalks in residential <br />subdivisions that were constructed by the developer and are maintained by the HOA. <br /> <br />Several years ago Orange County entered into a sidewalk maintenance agreement for a <br />portion of Homestead Road adjacent to the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The <br />sidewalk is in the County’s jurisdiction at this time but inevitably would be annexed since <br />it is part of adjacent ETJs. The agreement is multi-party including NCDOT which <br />allowed an encroachment agreement in its right-of-way. The Town maintains the <br />sidewalk. <br /> <br />Financial Impact <br /> <br />The cost of designing and constructing sidewalks can vary considerably depending on <br />factors such as grading issues, land acquisition costs, land clearing, utility relocations, <br />etc. A study has not been done specific to Orange County but staff research found that <br />the Town of Mooresville spent $119 - $200 per linear foot ($629,000 - $1,056,000 per <br />mile) for recent sidewalk projects. This figure includes all necessary costs design & <br />administration, curb & gutter, various retrofitting costs, etc. <br /> <br />132