BIKE: (OT, slightly) pedestrian issue coming up at UTC, May 16th

[Librik or Babich]

This is not truly bike related, but I expect some folk here may be 
interested.

The UTC will be considering a resolution at their May 16th meeting that 
people ought to know about, since it hits "close to home."

The resolution deals with the public's right to access the section of 
public right of way between the curb and the property line. In 
particular, this means the ability to walk beside the street, above the 
curb, "on the grass" more or less. Public Works has stated the policy 
that adjacent landowners can landscape in a manner that blocks access to 
this land and redirects foot traffic down the curb and into the street.

The city code specifically allows a landowner to landscape the public 
space in front of their own property (that is, the person next door 
cannot landscape your frontage), but it is silent on whether this 
landscaping can be done to the extent that it precludes other, public 
uses. The Street and Bridge Department's take is that if the code does 
not specifically say that this sort of landscaping prohibited then they 
will consider it OK and not take complaints about it. This resolution 
seeks to clarify the matter.

In summary, the resolution is in three parts. The first specifies that 
landscaping this area to the extent that foot traffic is not possible is 
a problem that some city code enforcement inspector's office should deal 
with. The second part calls on the city manager to specify which 
department will handle enforcement (probably Public Works under Bill 
Gardner). The third calls on that department to draft guidelines for 
what constitutes "usable."

Anyone interested in seeing a full draft of this resolution should 
contact me directly.

I think this deserves some attention, since folks might get taken by 
surprise by it. The resolution specifies no actions on the city's part 
aside from accepting complaints about it into their normal code 
violation procedures, but it makes the complaint process less 
cumbersome, and there are a lot of cases of this kind of landscaping. 
Complaints would eventually result in some hassle for somebody.

Please show up on the 16th or mail the UTC's staff liaison 
Leanne.Vaughn if you have an opinion on this, for or 
against. If you know of anyone who tries to walk around, or anyone who 
makes a point of landscaping their yard so that people must walk in the 
street, please let them know as well. Again, my first concern is that 
people are aware of this matter, even if they want to come and fight 
against the resolution.

For any questions about this, please contact me off-list.

-- 
Mike Librik, LCI #929
Easy Street Recumbents
(512) 453-0438
45th and Red River Streets, thereabouts
Central Austin
info
www.easystreetrecumbents.com
www.urbancycling.com