DENVER — The City of Denver is getting closer to setting a new fee structure for sidewalk improvements.
Denver voters approved a plan in November 2022 to improve sidewalks in the Mile High City. Despite that voter-approved ordinance, the Denver City Council voted to delay its implementation, citing an unfair fee structure that a committee has been studying for months now.
“We spent many months studying the different options and thinking about what are the different ways that people define fairness because there’s multiple ways to think about that,” said Jill Locantore, executive director of the Denver Streets Partnership. “The fee varied widely depending on the characteristics of the property. So basically, the committee is proposing to even that out.”
The original ordinance would have required homeowners to pay an annual fee based on the linear footage of the sidewalk in front of their homes. Those living on corner lots, including Margaret Atencio, fear that might really pinch their monthly budgets.