Planning & Zoning Commission wants to take additional time to plan the city's sidewalk program

Members of the Decorah Planning & Zoning Commission agreed Monday night that they still have some work to do on the city's new sidewalk program.

City street department workers earlier this year inspected some 600 properties in the center of town and in the Bruening Addition.  Of those properties, 50 were found to have sidewalks that needed repairs, while another 80 were found not to have sidewalks.

Planning & Zoning Commission members Monday night agreed that the city should proceed with requiring the 50 property owners with sidewalks that need repairs to make those repairs.  But commission members also agreed with members of the public that the commission needs to develop guidelines about requiring sidewalks to be installed.  "We can't be arbitrary," said commission member Nathan Thompson.

So the Planning & Zoning Commission will continue to work on the issue next month, studying the cost of hiring a professional engineer to draw up a sidewalk plan for the Bruening Addition--if sidewalks are needed; studying suggested criteria for granting waivers of the sidewalk requirement; and developing a plan for how to handle the requests for waivers.

Bruening Addition property owner Steve Chambliss praised commission members, saying they listened to the concerns of subdivision residents.  He urged the commission to take time to get it right, saying, "the residents of Decorah expect that."  Chambliss agreed that "this is a 30-year problem your predecessors have ignored," but said the Planning & Zoning Commission should take as much time as needed to draw up a community-wide plan for sidewalks.