Virginia-Highland Civic Association to Coordinate Sidewalk Improvement Efforts

A Virginia-Highland Civic Association committee is coordinating an effort to fix hazardous sidewalks in the neighborhood.

Residents on Barnett Street and St. Charles Avenue will work with the association to target sidewalks in need of repair.

The city is responsible and will pay for sidewalk repairs if a tree root damaged the sidewalk. Other repairs are the responsibility of the homeowner.

"There is a concentration of sidewalks on St. Charles and Barnett in Virginia Highland that are broken or in poor condition," Peggy Berg, VHCA sidewalk committee chair, said. "It is much more efficient for the city to replace a bundle than individual sidewalks scattered across the city."

The program is still in the planning stages, Berg said, but she is hopeful things will fall into place in a few weeks.

About 14 residents in the Barnett St. and St. Charles Ave, area are on board, she said, and more are very interested in participating.

The process

Once the repair request is sent to the city, a city employee will inspect the sidewalk and provide the homeowner a cost estimate for their portion of the repair.

The homeowner will contact the civic association, and the board will use a formula figure out how much to contribute to the repair.

The civic association has yet to approve a proposal that would help pay for sidewalk repairs. The board plans to discuss and vote on the issue once the structure of the program is finalized.

On average, a 50-foot stretch of sidewalk costs about $1,000 to replace.

Once the money is sent to the city, the sidewalk will be replaced within five months depending on the city’s schedule.

“If VHCA is successful with this project, it hopes to work on other sections as well,” Berg said.

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