READ THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY REAL ESTATE BLOG For some months the City Council has debated the benefits of returning responsibility for sidewalk maintenance to the homeowner. Liabilities from trip and falls due to broken sidewalk is costly to the City budget. Broken sidewalks are caused by the trees the City planted and can not maintain. Consequently, they uproot the sidewalks and sometimes the driveways. The city can maintain trees on a 20 year cycle at this point, due to an already strained budget. While I do see city workers trimming trees in our areas, the trees they work on are usually medium sized and smaller sized trees. The workers have said that their performance review is based on the number of trees they trim, and they can trim more trees if the trees are medium sized. Therefore, the larger trees are left to tear up the sidewalks. (Good Job!) Currently, if a property owner who would like to trim a threatening tree, one must purchase a permit from the City (costly) and hire the crew (phenomenally costly). One is not able to obtain permission or permit from the city to remove the trees and/or roots so that the sidewalk can be leveled and repaired properly. So, what does the City Council propose? They just want to wash their hands of the maintenance and liability costs to the budget and return the liability of trip and falls to the homeowner. One method to do so is a proposal for a "Point of Sale" ordinance, that requires a seller make damaged sidewalk repair prior to the close of escrow. The seller must consider this cost when deciding to sell a property. The buyer must assume the cost in short sale transactions, and may have to re-evaluate the actual value of the property. The other proposal is yet-another-property-tax to property owners in the City of L.A. for sidewalk maintenance. If maintenance and repair responsibility passes to the property owner, and is required by law to be repaired, one must consider how the quality of repair work will affect the neighborhood. Tar is cheap, but unsighly and does not eliminate the threat of further distruction from the existing roots. We then need to have the city remove the roots so we can level the land and relay a sidewalk. Also, there is new material for sidewalks we may want to consider, or we may want to consider that some neighborhoods could do without the sidewalks altogether. If liability is to be assumed by the property owner, we need to look at further limits on trip and fall awards as it applies to a property owner vs. The City. If The City levies a new tax on property owners for the repair of city walks, will the tax actually be spent on the problem at hand, or will it once again be allocated to other priorities the City Council deems prudent? Well, I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Without a comprehensive plan for tree maintenance and sidewalk repair, it would be incompetent of the council to pass any laws regarding sidewalk repair. And believe me, they are getting ready to do just that! Contact your neighborhood council and planning commissions and ask them to contact the city council and tell them, do not pass an arbitrary ordinance for sidewalk repair until they have a comprehensive plan for this problem and present it to the public for consideration! Find your neighborhood council, planning commission at: http://done.lacity.org/dnn/Default.aspx Find your city council at www.lacity.org/YourGovernment/CityCouncil And please comment on this matter by the link above, "Read the San Fernando Valley Real Estate Blog." (Next discussion will be on the general condition and upkeep of our neighborhoods) |