This morning I visited the Hartford Department of Public Works to get the latest on the city’s sidewalk review. The bottom line is that a new round of sidewalk notices are on the way.
We’ll start with a quiz – can you spot the violation in this section of sidewalk?
As a quick recap, Hartford homeowners are responsible for maintaining the sidewalks on their property. The city is responsible for ensuring that homeowners maintain their sidewalks and use the notification process to do so. Ultimately, the city has the right to send a contractor out to make repairs and then put a lien on the property in the amount of the cost.
Let’s do a little Q&A to address the main questions that I had about the process.
Q. What constitutes a violation?
A. All sidewalks need to conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Some of the regulations include a 4 foot width and no horizontal or vertical gaps of more than 3/8ths of an inch. Additionally, the surface of the sidewalk can’t be cracked or delaminated.
Q. Who evaluated the sidewalks?
A. The Department of Public Works sent a team out this summer to take a look at the West End. The city is under pressure from the Justice Department to bring the city’s sidewalks into compliance.
Q. How will I know if I receive a notification?
A. The results from this summer’s survey are still being entered into the computer system, so we will likely get letters in the mail in a month or so. They’ll look like this except that they’ll have your address and the number of square feet of sidewalk that will need to be replaced.
While visiting the Maps & Records office, I also learned that there is a public computer available to look up existing sidewalk notifications. Although our house does not have any legacy notifications, lots and lots of homes on our street have one or more.
Q. What do I need to do if I get a notification?
A. In the City of Hartford, only licensed and bonded contractors are authorized to make sidewalk repairs. The city has the list at the Department of Public works of about 45 contractors authorized for curb and sidewalk repairs in 2008. Once you hire a contractor, they will take out a permit and the city will inspect the work. The notification is cleared only after the city completes the inspection.
Q. How long do I have to make repairs?
A. The notification will have an expiration date. My sense is that we’ll get about 3 months to make repairs, though we’ll know for sure when we receive the notifications.
Q. What if I don’t make repairs?
A. I honestly don’t know, but there were still notifications from 1997 in the computer.  Sidewalk notifications could become an issue if you tried to sell your home and the buyer discovered there was an open notification.
Q. Can they make me replace my slate with concrete?
A. They can make you replace damaged slate. They can make you realign your slate.  Previous battles over the slate apparently resulted in protection for the West End slate (everywhere else in the city is apparently required to replace slate with “approved” materials). At the end of the day, the city would prefer to see the slate removed because its open joints require more maintenance.
The only issue seems to be whether or not any of the approved contractors are willing to work with slate because they have to guarantee the work for 5 years.
Q. How does the MDC project play into the city’s effort?
A. The city’s recent survey is completely independent and unrelated to the MDC project. I didn’t have an opportunity to discuss the interplay between the two efforts, but will do so once we learn more about the MDC’s plans this fall.
So those are the main points from my visit. Please feel free to post questions in the comments section and I’ll do my best to address them.Â
Additionally, Duane Roberts of the Department of Public Works was very helpful and graciously agreed to allow me to post his contact information so folks could call directly with questions. Duane can be reached at 860-522-4888 x6589. Their office (with the computer to look up notifications) is on the second floor at 525 Main Street downtown.