The City's Attempts at Pushing Repairs onto Future Home Sellers
Do you think the best way to deal with a community’s broken sidewalks is to have homeowners pay for sidewalk repair when they sell their home? I am a homeowner and a Realtor in Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley, and I am very concerned about the city trying to shift this problem to home sellers. This piecemeal approach to sidewalk repair through a point-of-sale requirement, though, has recently been proposed by a task force convened by the Bureau of Street Services at the behest of the Los Angeles City Council.
A point-of-sale approach is misguided primarily because it is not a comprehensive method of eliminating threats to public safety—it is piecemeal and arbitrary. Suppose you sell your house and your sidewalk is broken, but your neighbor’s sidewalk is significantly worse. You would have to pay potentially thousands of dollars to repair your sidewalk while steps away the problem is even more severe; the adjoining broken sidewalk would not necessarily be repaired until the current homeowner decided to sell. It makes no sense to require one property owner who is selling to fix a moderately damaged sidewalk while risks to public safety on either side with dangerous cracked, uplifted, and broken sidewalks would remain unrepaired.
Realtors are urging the City of Los Angeles to think of a better plan. City officials acknowledge that at the current pace, it will take 83 years to repair already broken sidewalks. In the interest of public safety and livable neighborhoods, the city needs to devise a better plan.
Picture from RubberSideWalks Inc.
In Santa Monica, for instance, they have been repairing broken sidewalks with rubber ones made of recycled tires! The rubber gives instead of buckling and cracking, and the panels are permeable by moisture so the try roots do not need to push up in search of water. Our Westside neighbor, Santa Monica, is pioneering this new idea
(as explained in this USA Today article). My San Fernando Valley Government Affairs committee is looking for new and innovative ideas…and I am sure there are some out there on Active Rain. Please let me know!
If you would like more information or have any great ideas, please be sure to comment below. I am on the Government Affairs Committee for the Southland Regional Association of Realtors, and I will relay your concerns and ideas.
If you know of anyone looking for a Realtor that is up-to-date and actively involved in issues affecting the San Fernando Valley, from Chatsworth and the 118 corridor to Sherman Oaks and the prime studio corridor, I would love to help. I can be reached at Harley@KW.com.
