In 2017 Walk Bike Nashville supported, and helped pass “The Sidewalk Bill”, BL2917-493. This bill dramatically increased the requirements for sidewalks during development. For the first time ever it required sidewalks for single and two family houses in our most dense urban centers. It required more sidewalks for commercial and multi-family developments, and made it harder for those developments to avoid building. And it expanded where the “in-lieu of sidewalks” payment had to be made.
Thanks to this bill hundreds of new sidewalks have been built, stemming the tide of our sidewalk needs, and millions have been paid into the “in-lieu of sidewalks” fund, further stretching the $30 Million Metro has been spending each year on new sidewalks around the city. You can read all about the current requirements for sidewalks here.
Councilwoman Angie Henderson has filed, BL2019-1659 an update to the original sidewalk bill. It tweaks a few parts of the updated code and streamlines the waiver process. Overall Walk Bike Nashville is generally supportive of this bill, though somewhat concerned how it will play out in reality. Here's a quick overview of the bill and our thoughts.
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