By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
ROBBINSVILLE The Township Council has re-introduced an ordinance that would make homeowners responsible for fixing damaged sidewalks, driveway aprons or curbs located between their property line and the street.
Residents who don’t comply would risk having a lien placed against their home if the township had to make the repairs for them. Township officials say the law is intended to protect the municipality from liability in trip-and-fall lawsuits.
Township Attorney Mark Roselli said last week that Robbinsville’s proposed sidewalk maintenance ordinance was similar to laws that are already on the books in many area communities.
”At least five or six nearby towns I know of have them both Princetons, West Windsor, Hamilton and East Windsor…” Mr. Roselli told residents at the Township Council meeting Feb. 24 when the ordinance was introduced.
”There’s a state law that allows municipalities to impose these types of liability upon residents and allows the towns to assess a property owner if he doesn’t do the work himself,” Mr. Roselli said.
A public hearing on the proposed ordinance is scheduled for March 24.
Mayor Dave Fried said the proposed ordinance is mainly focused on sidewalks and driveway aprons and that homeowners would be responsible for broken curbs only if they or the contractors they hired did the damage. He explained that contractors who install swimming pools sometimes break the curbs when they drive heavy trucks over them to get to the homeowner’s backyard.
The ordinance is similar to the proposal the Township Council had on its agenda Dec. 23, but ended up tabling in the face of strident opposition from dozens of residents during a raucous council meeting. Most of the opponents two months ago were homeowners from the Meadowbrook Road area who saw the ordinance as an attempt to help a warehouse developer they are battling in court.
Township officials denied the accusation and said the issue was on their radar because residents of The Ridings development across town complained that the roots of trees planted a decade ago beyond their property lines were buckling the sidewalks. The trees and sidewalks are in the township right-of-way and the residents of The Ridings neighborhood maintain that they shouldn’t be financially responsible for damage done by the township’s trees.
Kathy Goodwine, of Barto Way in The Ridings development, returned for the Feb. 24 council meeting to ask how the latest version of the ordinance would affect her sidewalk situation. Mr. Roselli said the ordinance was not retroactive and would not apply to her case because the township was already aware of the pre-existing sidewalk problem in the township right-of-way.
He pointed out the language in the revised draft ordinance that says property owners are responsible “as the need arises and after the completion of any sidewalk replacement program.”
The new “statement of purpose section” in the ordinance also is intended to satisfy the concerns of the Meadowbrook Road residents, who feared the earlier version’s reference to driveway aprons and township right-of-ways would give a developer the legal tools he needs to cut down a neighbor’s trees near his property.
”We put a statement of purpose section in because there seemed to be some confusion as to whether the intent was to deal with site plan approvals, which there wasn’t,” Mr. Roselli said, referring to the Meadowbrook Road residents’ concerns.
Another change in the draft ordinance gives a resident 30 days to fix a sidewalk problem after having received a notice of violation from the township. The original version had given a homeowner only 10 days to comply. If a homeowner does not comply in a timely manner, the township could make the repairs and then place a lien against the property if the bill isn’t paid.
Mr. Roselli said this is similar to what the township already has the power to do if residents damage a public street or fail to maintain their property, such as refusing to cut their lawn, etc.
Patriot Drive resident Sonja Walter asked who would be the “sidewalk police” responsible for issuing violation notices to residents with damaged sidewalks, driveway aprons and curbs.
”Those determinations are made by our zoning officer,” Council Vice President Rich Levesque replied.
When Ms. Walter asked what would happen if a neighbor with a grudge filed a complaint against someone with a tiny crack in their sidewalk, Council President Sheree McGowan said that the zoning officer would use common sense in making a determination about whether repairs were warranted.
”You can’t legislate common sense,” Ms. McGowan said.
