SOUTH RIVER–The Borough Council introduced an ordinance that would remove the requirement that landowners must install sidewalks to complete the sale of a property.
“The borough is not seeking to make any change to a landowner’s current responsibility to maintain the curbs and sidewalks. The proposed ordinance removes a requirement … that made a certificate of occupancy contingent upon the installation of a sidewalk for a transfer of ownership,” Londensky said. “The other changes to the ordinance were revised to accurately reflect the borough officials responsible for each action in the current process.”
The maintenance, repair and reconstruction of sidewalks and curbs, meaning any combination curb and gutter, will be maintained, repaired or reconstructed so that the abutting landowner would be responsible for the curb portion only and the borough would be responsible for the street gutter portion; this will be the responsibility of the abutting landowners and will be repaired, altered, relaid or maintained at the expense of the abutting landowners, according to the council agenda.
Londensky said the amendment removes the requirement that “all other properties upon a transfer of ownership” install a sidewalk in order to obtain a certificate of occupancy.
For all newly constructed homes, a certificate of occupancy will not be issued until sidewalks are installed in the public right-of-way along all portions of the property that front a public road in accordance with the borough code, according to the council agenda.
A bond in an amount not to exceed the reasonable estimate for the cost of sidewalk installation as determined by the construction official is posted with the Building Department by the property owner. The bond amount will be refunded upon installation of the sidewalks and approval of same by the borough construction official, according to the council agenda.
The first reading of the ordinance was on Sept. 9. The second and final reading for the ordinance is scheduled for Sept. 23.
For more information, visit www.southrivernj.org/agendas/council/.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].