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New Canaan’s highest elected official wants the town to consider requiring residents to clear snow and ice from sidewalks abutting their homes.
At present, the town is required to remove snow and ice from sidewalks outside the downtown area, mandated by ordinance. Despite this, the town is only able to tend to nine of the 20 mandated miles due to staffing and attempts to contain costs within an inflationary budget, officials say.
According to First Selectman Dionna Carlson, maintaining all 20 miles would cost something close to another $2 million a year.
New Canaan is currently the one of the only towns in this area required to maintain residential sidewalks.
“In all our like-communities the residents are in charge of taking care of the snow and ice during the winter on sidewalks abutting their property,” Carlson said during the June 5 meeting of the Town Council Bylaws and Ordinances Committee.
Such an ordinance, seemingly unique to New Canaan, opened questions for those in attendance at the meeting—held in Town Hall and via videoconference—of why it was put in place to begin with.
“I think it was an initiative that was created way back when we were trying to get our first sidewalks in and they [cleared the sidewalks] as an incentive,” Carlson said.
But now the town is not fulfilling such an incentive. Not even by half.
“We now have an untenable situation and a huge liability and I can’t get on board with another inch of sidewalk right now given the way this ordinance is written,” Carlson said. “We have to find a solution that removes the liability that comes with those sidewalks.”
Carlson and Public Works Director Tiger Mann proposed a solution: Residents must clear snow and ice from sidewalks around their homes.
“I’m trying to find a way to expand sidewalks in a way that we can afford, and we cannot afford what we have now,” Carlson said.
Members of New Canaan’s legislative body debated the pros and cons of such an ordinance. Those advocating for the change saw the benefits to town costs and liability issues while those who opposed felt that such an ordinance was not fair to residents who did not choose their respective sidewalks, don’t own them, and may not have the means to clear them – especially given that sidewalks are used by the whole of town, not just those who live next to them.
Here is a summary of the discussion at the meeting:
- Carlson does not want to increase the number of sidewalks until this issue is resolved, “If we want to continue to expand our sidewalk network, I can’t get on board without us figuring this issue out,” Carlson said.
- Committee member Cristina A. Ross opposed the proposed ordinance, citing the unfairness in making a select few pay for what she believed to be a collective town benefit. “That’s a handful of people who would be carrying the burden of cost for the entire town,” Ross said. “If everybody pays for [clearing the sidewalks] through their taxes at least they’re contributing towards the betterment of New Canaan.”
- Questions arose regarding why the town ever built sidewalks that it couldn’t feasibly afford in the long run. “I wasn’t part of that decision,” Carlson said. “But I have to say sidewalks are great. We’re trying to encourage people to walk, it’s healthier adults, it’s less traffic, it’s more eco-friendly, and it adds to a sense of community. I’m all for sidewalks but we just can’t afford this.”
- Carlson presented an exception to her proposal. “I do believe that the town should maintain sidewalks where [the town] has taken away bus service from kids,” Carlson said. If school-aged children live in a neighborhood requiring them to walk to school, she believes it is the town’s responsibility to make sure those children have the proper means to walk to school.
- Questions arose concerning towns that already have such an ordinance. “Of all these towns that have these sidewalk ordinances, how is it going?” Committee member Kimberly Norton asked. “Who’s enforcing it? Are people actually shoveling their sidewalks? Is it really making it better? I’m more interested in it actually getting done, not just an ordinance.”
- Committee member Rita Bettino noted how such an ordinance may be unfair to homeowners who do not own and did not choose the sidewalks abutting their properties. She also felt there were some issues with this solution — the elderly, the disabled, and those who cannot afford cleaning services. “Frankly, I ended up shoveling some of my neighbors’ [sidewalks] because they couldn’t and so you would see a patchwork, some did it, some did it later, some did it and it would snow again” Bettino said. “I personally don’t think we should rely on homeowners to be doing that because I don’t think we’re going to have the right compliance.”
- Town resident Teresa Piontkowski, a guest at the meeting, said, “A change in [the existing] ordinance may change a fundamental premise on which the sidewalks were installed. If the town views sidewalks as a priority, it should allocate sufficient funds for liability and the maintenance of them.”
- The Town Council committee also discussed penalties for those who would not comply with such an ordinance, such as fines and placing liens on homes, in addition to liability if someone were to get hurt on their property.
“What’s the answer?” asked committee member Hilary Ormond. “Philosophically I think you can debate it but at the end of the day, where the rubber meets the road, is this getting done? It’s a tough issue because you’ve got reliance on the current system for a large number of people.”
As the meeting concluded, next steps involved collecting more data to better understand the issue.
Mike, can you please update the headline? There will be a meeting tonight, July 1, to discuss this topic. The government calendar was uploaded on Friday with this meeting notice:
Town of New Canaan Town Council Bylaws & Ordinances Committee
Town Meeting Room
Monday, July 1, 2024
7:00 P.M.
Notice: This will be a hybrid meeting. Those wishing to participate in the meeting may attend in person or connect to Zoom, a web-based video conferencing tool, on their computers, tablets or phones, as follows:
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83930496987?pwd=hSTDbtMMOyaD9bqrxcwBaUDSCB3YWM.1 Meeting ID: 839 3049 6987 Passcode: 777849
Agenda
1. Sidewalk Snow and Ice Removal. Consideration of whether to shift responsibility for sidewalk snow and ice removal from the Town to abutting property owners.
Why are we scheduling this important meeting during July 4th week when many residents are away?
I love the opportunity here. There’s many entrepreneurial, young kids who would love the chance to make a few bucks, and plenty of volunteer groups with older kids who need service hours.
This is ridiculous. Clearing town-owned sidewalks should be a municipal service. What other town services should “entrepreneurial young kids” be doing? I can’t believe we are discussing this.
This is far from ridiculous. We are one of the few towns that still offer the service. In most other CT towns homeowners are responsible for the sidewalk in front of their homes and towns are responsible for public areas. This policy is not unique to CT either. We are definitely the outlier here.
Phil offers an opportunity for younger kids to earn some extra money and perhaps build some work ethic as well. I think it’s a great way for kids to learn how to transact with adults, other than parents providing allowances. It’s what I did as a child, but if you don’t think your kids should, if you have them, they do not need to participate. Phil does not suggest that kids do other town duties, but shoveling snow is something even a 11- or 12-year-old could handle.
How ironic that the timing of this suggestion coincided almost perfectly with the arrival of our property tax bills. The installation of the sidewalks was very contentious at the outset but the opposition was overruled. Little did we know what was awaiting us all these years later. “My” sidewalk is on Main Street and my driveway opens onto it. No need to elaborate on the implications of that. See you tonight at the meeting.
Sidewalks make it much safer for pedestrians to walk our streets. The sidewalks we have are heavily used. There is high demand for new sidewalks and the biggest impediment to the creation of new sidewalks is the expense incurred by the town to clear the snow from them. Most places that have extensive sidewalk infrastructure make the property owners responsible for snow removal.
I always understood that there is no town money, it’s taxpayers’ money. And the priorities of the taxpayers are what our taxes should go to.
If there is high demand and high use of sidewalks, then taxpayer dollars should be budgeted to build and maintain them.
I am reading the letters about snow shoveling with a smile on my face. We moved to New Canaan 6 years ago after living in Wisconsin for 44 years. Believe me, we shoveled a LOT of snow. In addition, we were too naive when we bought our one and only house to realize that a corner lot involved twice the shoveling. Nearly every town puts the responsibility for shoveling on the homeowner, and I agree with that.
I have been walking with a four-wheel walker for some years. When the town plows certain sidewalks that I walked along to the train station, the plowed area wasn’t as wide as the walker, so I was forced over into the street, which was plowed. One morning I was picked up by a resident driving back from buying breakfast sandwiches. He not only carried me to the train station, but he shared one of the hot sandwiches he’d picked up. Another morning the sidewalks along Elm Street had iced over, forcing me into Elm Street. A Town policeman drove me to the train station. I don’t know how one writes an ordinance covering all the complications of living in New England.
I am disappointed to hear that the Town is seeking to abdicate responsibility for snow removal from the sidewalks and I question the $2million in expected incremental maintenance costs.
1. Snow and ice are far less common now than 15 years ago. How is it that snow removal costs so much when there are far fewer snow storms?
2. As a resident, we receive so few town services. I am not on town water or sewer and I pay for garbage removal. Snow removal of the sidewalks is one of the few services that I benefit from.
3. I presume the town will issue warnings or fines when residents do not remove the snow and ice.
Looks like a lot of people going to have to update there insurance policy’s to cover slips and falls
Unfortunately, inflation has hit us all and the cost of many of this town’s services has increased materially. This translates to higher taxes for us all, despite best efforts from our town bodies. Just some thoughts to consider when debating our sidewalk clearing policy.
1) This policy is not the norm in most of our neighboring towns or in CT. The town is currently providing an expensive service few others provide.
2) Although some would argue that a sidewalk network is a benefit for all citizenry, it does disproportionately benefit those within the network. Those who do not live within the sidewalk network are very unlikely to use 90% of the sidewalks in front of residential homes with any regularity, while those that live within the network likely benefit from it on a daily basis.
3) At an estimated cost of an additional $2 million and assuming approximately 7,000 homes in New Canaan, we would each be paying almost $300 a year for this snow removal, on average. (this depends on your homes assessed value).
4) As the large majority of other towns have this policy, we should be able to leverage others to formulate a policy on compliance, penalties etc.
If this is the much more fiscally responsible and equitable outcome, then we should do our best to implement it. We know it’s possible.
Personally, we would love to convenience of being in the sidewalk network and have no problem shoveling our walk if we get one. 🙂