Homeowners may no longer have to cover sidewalk repairs

REGINA – Residents might not have to dish out thousands of dollars to repair their sidewalks next year.

On Thursday, the city’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee will consider scrapping the controversial Local Improvement Program (LIP) that tacked those bills onto the backs of homeowners.

Through the LIP, homeowners have to pay for most of their own sidewalk repairs, unless they successfully petition against it.

Next year, any extra cost might only come if they want the work to be completed ahead of schedule.

“Say we had planned to do that in year five, but they want to do it in year one, they can apply for the program and participate financially that way,” Mayor Michael Fougere said.

It’s not exactly good news for people who have already seen the work completed.

Property owners with a sidewalk are asked to pay $414 per metre of frontage while those with only a curb pay $210 per metre, which is still upwards of $3,000 on top of the tax bill many will pay.

“Had we known this was in the offing, we certainly wouldn’t have and probably would have come up with a petition,” said one Whitmore Park homeowner.

In that particular neighbourhood, there’s a tale of two streets.

On the one side of McKee Crescent had its curbs and sidewalks reconstructed this summer under the LIP, but homeowners on the east side of McKee petitioned against the repairs and won.

It wasn’t the first petition to kill construction plans. This spring, residents on Grant Road were successful in their lobby against repairs worth $7,400 each.

More than half of the 15 projects on the table in 2014 were canceled.

“Clearly when you have as many as we had last year refuse, we look at the program (and ask), ‘Why is this happening? Can we make it better?’ ” said Fougere. “We think this is a good solution to that.”

The move would cut about $700,000 from the city’s budget for replacing residential sidewalks, curbs and gutters.