Nearly three years after Denver voters made sidewalk maintenance the city’s responsibility by passing an ambitious ballot initiative, the first repairs are now underway.
The city’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure began making improvements to sidewalks in northwest Denver over the summer. Work has continued into the fall in other neighborhoods while it develops a larger “sidewalk master plan,” said Nancy Kuhn, a DOTI spokeswoman.
Denver has 3,110 miles of sidewalks and 350 miles of road frontage that are missing sidewalks. At least 1,235 miles of the city’s sidewalks, or about 40%, are considered deficient.
The first round of repairs began in July in parts of the Sloan’s Lake neighborhood. The city next began work on sections of the Berkeley neighborhood, where crews were active earlier this week, and later will focus on Capitol Hill. Each area takes about a month to complete.
The “Denver Deserves Sidewalks” initiative, approved by voters in 2022, shifted the responsibility of sidewalk repairs from property owners to the city and created a citywide fee to raise money for the work.
But the City Council twice delayed the new fees from taking effect as it debated different ways to structure them. Under the original measure, the fees would have been calculated based on how many linear feet of sidewalk or street frontage a property has. That would have resulted in homeowners with corner lots paying significantly more than others.
In 2024, the council decided on a flat $150 annual fee for almost all property owners. Those with more than 230 linear feet of sidewalk along their property frontage will pay an additional $3.50 per foot beyond that length. The city has an online tool that shows property owners’ annual fees.
City officials began collecting fees through municipal stormwater bills in January.
In April, the council approved a contract with HNTB to develop the master plan and to provide engineering and program management services. Within about nine years, the city plans to build more than 350 miles of new sidewalks and improve 1,200 miles of existing sidewalks.
The city has identified several other parts of the city for sidewalk improvements in the 2025-2026 time frame, including more of Sloan’s Lake, Country Club, Regis, Northeast Park Hill, North Park Hill, Green Valley Ranch, Harvey Park, Globeville and Elyria Swansea.
More details on which parts of each neighborhood will receive attention are available on DOTI’s website, where it will also post which areas crews plan to work on next.
Residents can report damaged sidewalks through the city’s 311 call center. Denver will begin taking public input on the sidewalk implementation plan in early December, Kuhn said.
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