The City of San Marcos is working on making its sidewalk program more transparent, but not to the satisfaction of one Belvin Street resident with complaints about a sidewalk being put in on her block.
At its meeting last week, the San Marcos City Council gave direction to City Manager Bert Lumbreras to let the council’s multimodal committee look at the city’s sidewalk program. At issue are the ways in which members of the public are notified about projects and what Mayor Jane Hughson referred to as a “return on investment” — whether sidewalks are being put where they will get the most use.
Lumbreras said the sidewalk program was adopted years ago with the intention of repairing and improving existing sidewalks and filling in areas where there are no sidewalks. Recently, he said, the city has expanded the notification area for sidewalk projects, started notifying residents 60 days in advance instead of 30, holding public meetings on the sidewalk program twice a year instead of once, and notifying the Neighborhood Commission of sidewalk projects 60 days ahead of time.
