Has anyone had any experience with this ordinance? Family member is building a house in west Houston that does not have any sidewalks in the entire neighborhood, yet by code you have to build sidewalks on your property or pay a fee to the City , not to have sidewalks?

I hate this code/ ordinance but is there a way around it?

looking for some help.

lb1lb2 said:

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Has anyone had any experience with this ordinance? Family member is building a house in west Houston that does not have any sidewalks in the entire neighborhood, yet by code you have to build sidewalks on your property or pay a fee to the City , not to have sidewalks?

I hate this code/ ordinance but is there a way around it?

looking for some help.

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Good luck. Old house in spring branch was the only house on the street with a sidewalk.

Ryan
Can you give some direction in obtaining a waiver. This is the type of help I need since all of my searches have led to pay the fee. Any direction to a department or contact you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

LB1LB2

My memory is a bit hazy, but I think the City Engineer's office handles sidewalk waivers and variances.

I thought the fee is required if you want to go the waiver route?

drumboy said:

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lb1lb2 said:

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Has anyone had any experience with this ordinance? Family member is building a house in west Houston that does not have any sidewalks in the entire neighborhood, yet by code you have to build sidewalks on your property or pay a fee to the City , not to have sidewalks?

I hate this code/ ordinance but is there a way around it?

looking for some help.

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Good luck. Old house in spring branch was the only house on the street with a sidewalk.

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Hah, there was a house in my SB neighborhood that was rebuilt after a fire. Exactly as you describe, only house in the neighborhood with a sidewalk. Looks so dumb. They went with a gravel path and slowly the lawn is reclaiming the sidewalk.

Is the fee a one-time thing?

Yes it is. Build the sidewalks or pay for the waiver.

Pretty sure they've started cracking down on this recently. Waivers used to be cheap so everyone did it. According to my bil, it's actually cheaper to build the sidewalk now (about $1/sq ft cheaper).

I have a family member west of the heights building and going through this. They'll have the only stretch of sidewalk on the block.

It's the reason every new build in oak forest now has a sidewalk in front of even though it's not connected to anything on either side.

I believe the long term plan is for the city to connect all these sidewalks. They've done a few streets in oak forest.

Saw an investigation segment starting on the overseeing of problem sidewalks in the Heights area. One of the local tv stations were running it a few days ago.

Sidewalks is a really big push to make the city and county "walkable". As part of the green push buy Sidewalks are such a pain because people plant trees near them and the roots eventually lift and make the sidewalk a giant trip hazard. Which is what's happened in my older neighborhood.

But the homeowner owns the sidewalk so eventually they'll be fined if it's not in decent t repair.