New construction will require sidewalks

Bellaire council rejected ‘fee-in-lieu’ to allow builders to opt out of requirement

Bellaire City Council voted to require builders of new construction to install sidewalks.

The council voted 4 to 3 on June 6 to adopt an ordinance requiring builders to install sidewalks along each side of a property abutting a public street.

The ordinance takes effect July 1.

Councilwoman Trisha Pollard spearheaded the sidewalk issue in May and city staff drafted the ordinance. The council rejected a provision allowing a “fee-in-lieu” for builders constructing new homes. The provision would have allowed builders to pay a fee and opt out of the sidewalk requirement if “there is no sidewalk on an adjacent property, and less than 50 percent of the block face on which the property is located has a sidewalk, and the side of the street where the house will be built is not designated as a pedestrian route on an approved city pathways plan.”

Pollard has long made sidewalks an issue.

During her 2015 campaign for council, Pollard once called the city’s sidewalk network a “Byzantine patchwork.”

“There is benefit in building a sidewalk when constructing a new house because at that point the builder is develop-

ing the landscaping and trees are being planted and driveways are being installed,” she said.

This ordinance is a step in the right direction,” said councilman Pat McLaughlan.

Councilman David Montague did not favor the ordinance as he felt it was “putting a band-aid” on a larger problem.

“We are going to have single sidewalks in front of 60 new homes next year (considering recent, historical, annual new home construction averages),” he said.

Mayor Andrew Friedberg was opposed to the measure.

He said an overall sidewalk plan, which is in development by city staff, should be completed first. He said it is unwise for the council to take single steps in any given direction when it has yet to determine what direction is actually best.

Christopher Butler, a member of the city’s planning and zoning commission and volunteer with the grassroots Citizens for a Beautiful Bellaire, said the more than 1,000 respondents to a survey he conducted from October to January for the Citizens group overwhelmingly favor improving the city’s sidewalk network.

“For every one or two people who objected to sidewalks, there were 50 to 100 that are in favor of sidewalks,” Butler said.