Denver now providing estimates for sidewalk repair fees online
Denver property owners can now visit the city’s website to see the annual fees they will be expected to pay to finance sidewalk construction and repairs citywide in accordance with a ballot measure voters approved last fall.
The sidewalk fee lookup tool is available at denvergov.org/sidewalks. Bills will start arriving next year.
Property owners must type in their legal address — including N, S, E or W directional abbreviations — and find an estimated total annual fee for their home or commercial property. The search bar does not recognize punctuation marks.
The fees are dictated by the length of the sidewalk running along a property and the type of street on which the property is located. Different style streets require different width and style of sidewalks.
For instance, a private home in the city’s southwestern Harvey Park neighborhood with 65 linear feet of sidewalk along a residential street will pay an estimated $134.38 in 2024. Meanwhile, the Choice Market grocery store and gas station at 2200 E. Colfax Ave. will be billed an estimated $776.15 per year, $533.20 for 124 linear feet along Colfax, an arterial street, and $242.95 for 113 feet along Gaylord Street, a local street.
The fees by street type were laid out in Initiated Ordinance 307, the sidewalk repair ballot measure that Denverites voted to support law in November. The measure passed with 55.9% support. It creates a citywide sidewalk repair and construction program overseen by the city’s transportation department. It replaces the city’s previous system in which each property owner was solely responsible for the condition of the sidewalks in front of their homes or businesses including the total cost of any needed repairs.
The city is relying on the most current parcel data from the assessor’s office to create the estimates. As of Tuesday, not every property in the city had been loaded into the system but that work is continuing, said Nancy Kuhn, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.
“The intent of the tool is to provide property owners an estimate of what their sidewalk bill will be next year so they can plan ahead,” Kuhn said.
The city has not yet started any sidewalk work related to the Initiated Ordinance 307. As laid out in the ordinance, the first order of business will be creating a citywide sidewalks master plan. Creation of that plan will be funded through the fees once collections begin, Kuhn said.
The city has estimated the fees will raise $40 million per year over the next five year and potentially more after that.
According to the city’s sidewalks website, billing will be conducted alongside the existing stormwater charges with bills coming twice a year. People living in neighborhoods the city has deemed vulnerable to economic displacement will be granted 20% discounts.
Additional information and a list of frequently asked questions are available on the site.
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