MISSOULA — The Department of Public Works and Mobility sat down with members of City Council this week to discuss Missoula's sidewalk program and if, or how it should continue.
At the current pace of construction, estimates suggest it would take more than a century to fully complete Missoula's sidewalk infrastructure. But the cost of sidewalks continues to increase at a rate that's quickly making projects at any meaningful scale cost-prohibitive.
“There's been some frustration and confusion around our sidewalk program,” said Public Works Director Jeremy Keene. “We consistently hear complaints in how we pay for them. We need some direction on where to go.”
The city's sidewalk program has undergone a number of changes over the last 15 years. Not too long ago, the cost of building new or replacing hazardous sidewalks fell entirely on the homeowner to fund.
Since then, the city has picked up some of the costs while sharing — or assessing — a portion of the cost with the homeowner. The current assessment is currently capped at $9,000.
The city also provides low-interest loans to cover the homeowner's assessment or a complete deferral in payment until the property changes ownership. However, the deferred payment hasn't been used, city officials said.
Despite the changes in recent years to share some of the costs with homeowners, the cost of sidewalks continues to climb, leading some to contend that the program is no longer sustainable, neither for the city nor the homeowner.
"We have funding in a limited capacity, but those dollars we're putting toward sidewalk projects is being eaten up by inflation each year. We're doing less and less,” said city engineer Kevin Slovarp.
Exploring options
Public Works on Wednesday asked members of City Council to provide direction on how — or if — the sidewalk program should continue.
As presented, council explored four options that include the status quo, lowering the homeowner assessment even more, doing away with the program completely, or stop building sidewalks for several years.
Each option offers pros and cons. If the city maintains the status quo, there's no immediate impact to the budget, though homeowners would still feel the pain of a $9,000 assessment. Lowering the assessment to $3,500, as some suggest, would cost the city around $250,000 annually.
“This would result in a budget shortfall we'd have to address,” said Ross Mullenhauer, the city's utility project manager. “We'd have to make that up with other funding sources.”
Doing away with the assessments completely would cost the city roughly $400,000 annually.
“You'd see a reduction in the number of projects we bring forward,” said Keene.
Path forward
Sidewalks have been an area of focus on City Council for a decade, and there's little consensus on how the program should continue. Council members on Wednesday indicated their preferences, though no single option emerged as a clear favorite.
“I think it's beneficial for the homeowner to have some sense of buy-in,” said council member Stacie Anderson. “But at this point in time, it seems like we've reached a point of dysfunction, and we need to give staff the ability to go forward.”
Others looked to put the program on hold until economic circumstances change.
“I think we need to pause our aggressive sidewalk program right now.” said council member Mike Nugent. “The economic environment is in a different place than it has been in the last decade. We're looking at a structural deficit in our budget. We're going to need to trim costs in some places in our budget this year.”
But several also supported an elimination of the assessment completely, placing the full cost on the city.
“Sidewalks are city-owned assets and should be under the purview of the city,” said council member Kristen Jordan. “I think government should be a safety net.”
City Council is expected to debate the options moving forward and provide direction to Public Works on how the sidewalk program functions in the future.
