Sidewalk regulations often confound homeowners.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - If Ed and Laura Kinlock had not fixed their beat-up driveway, they would not have been forced by city hall to pay for a costly sidewalk repair.
But the Kinlocks decided to spend $1,000 to repave their driveway with a fresh layer of asphalt. Their contractor also repaved their sidewalk, which was already asphalt.
This is the sidewalk and driveway next door to the residence of Ed and Laura Kinlock, of Syracuse. Although asphalt is no longer permitted as a sidewalk material, city officials have not condemned this sidewalk because no recent work has been done on it. The Kinlocks were required to install a new concrete sidewalk after they repaved their asphalt driveway and sidewalk.Tim Knauss
Laura Kinlock said she was very pleased with the result - until the city condemned it, tore up their driveway and charged them $4,500 to install a new concrete sidewalk that goes through the driveway.
The Kinlocks, who moved to the East Side of Syracuse in 2012 from the sidewalk-free Radisson development in suburban Lysander, were stunned. They pleaded with city officials to leave the repaving job intact, saying all they had done was to improve the appearance and condition of an existing asphalt driveway and sidewalk.
They are not the first Syracuse residents to be confounded by the city's sidewalk rules, which demand costly perfection from some homeowners while ignoring shattered, upended or missing sidewalks elsewhere.
"It's just so capricious,'' Laura Kinlock said. "If you walked around the block, you would have said I had one of the nicer sidewalks.''
But it turns out that any driveway paving job that covers the sidewalk - even if it's just the portion of the sidewalk that crosses the driveway - provides grounds for the city to order a new concrete sidewalk to be built. The Kinlocks, who live on Nottingham Road in the Meadowbrook Drive neighborhood, now have a 5 foot-wide concrete sidewalk built by the city, which they will pay for on their taxes for the next 10 years.
The new sidewalk ends at the Kinlocks' property line, where it meets a pitted, 4 foot-wide asphalt sidewalk owned by their next-door neighbor. The neighbor's sidewalk has not been condemned.
The Syracuse Common Council has begun a review of sidewalk policies in hopes of creating a system that is more consistent and efficient at maintaining sidewalks, especially along major corridors with heavy pedestrian traffic. Councilors are reviewing a wide range of issues, including how sidewalks are paid for and how to make sure snow gets removed in the winter. In the meantime, here are a few lessons drawn from the Kinlocks' experience:
Lesson One: If you pave your driveway, you have to leave a concrete sidewalk across it.
Since 2003, the city has required all new sidewalks to be concrete, not asphalt. And the concrete must extend across blacktop driveways.
This is how a legal sidewalk should look as it crosses a driveway. Syracuse no longer allows driveway blacktop to cover the concrete. This is a 4 foot-wide walk; the city recently started to require 5 foot-wide sidewalks. Tim Knauss
Many miles of asphalt sidewalk remain in Syracuse, within and outside of driveways, because the 2003 ordinance has only been enforced for new sidewalks. The city generally has not required homeowners to replace pre-existing asphalt with concrete unless the asphalt creates a trip hazard and someone reports it.
But if you repave your driveway, including the portion where the sidewalk crosses it, all bets are off. The new work creates a violation of the concrete-only rule. Matthew Jackson, the engineering project coordinator in charge of sidewalk maintenance at the Syracuse public works department, said he has no choice but to condemn the sidewalk if he learns it has been newly paved over.
"I can't just walk away,'' Jackson said. "It's been that way since 2003 that asphalt is no longer acceptable. It's a tough thing. I can't just not obey the (city) charter and say, 'Well, okay, you didn't know.' ''
Lesson Two: Make your paving contractor get a city permit.
Simple driveway sealing does not require a permit, but a permit is necessary for repaving. Sidewalk repair also requires a permit. City officials say homeowners should require their contractors to pull a permit before starting work.
On the back of the contract the Kinlocks signed with Superior Seal & Paving Inc., of Fayetteville, is this sentence: "If building or other permits are required, they shall be obtained and paid for by the home/business owner.''
Laura Kinlock said she did not notice that sentence before she signed. Nobody from Superior asked to see a permit, and none was obtained for the paving job, she said. She contacted the city water and sewer departments to have them raise the drain caps in the driveway before new asphalt was applied. Neither department mentioned the need for a permit.
Laura Kinlock, of Syracuse, said she asked the owner of this recently paved driveway for a recommendation of a paving contractor. The asphalt on this driveway covers the concrete sidewalk, which is no longer legal in Syracuse.Tim Knauss
If a permit had been pulled, it would have specified the need for a concrete sidewalk, Jackson said.
Although Superior's contract puts the onus on the property owner to obtain a permit, "that's bogus,'' said Pete O'Connor, Syracuse commissioner of public works.
Homeowners should require their contractors to pull permits, he said, because the contractors have to supply proof of insurance and because contractors are better equipped to understand technical building specifications.
Greg Rinaldi, president of Superior Seal & Paving, said he requires customers to pull any necessary permits because they may be required to supply a property survey or other information the paving company does not have. Rinaldi said he sympathizes with the Kinlocks, but his company only did what the customers asked them to do - repave a sidewalk that was already asphalt.
"I wasn't the original guy who paved over that sidewalk,'' he said. "All I did was pave over what was existing.''
However, Rinaldi said today that he plans to refund the Kinlocks' money, because of the
extra expense they incurred from the city.
Lesson Three: City officials have no recourse against contractors who pave over sidewalks.
DPW officials estimate that dozens of Syracuse driveways get repaved each year, and very few of the contractors obtain permits or install concrete walks. But the city has no legal grounds to hold contractors responsible, and can only require the property owner to correct the situation, O'Connor said.
"How do I penalize (contractors) now? I don't have any mechanism,'' O'Connor said.
That could change. O'Connor said he is working with city councilors on legislation that would require certain types of contractors, including snowplow drivers and paving companies, to obtain licenses to work in the city. That would give city officials more leverage to make sure contractors perform work that complies with city regulations, he said.
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