For Smaller Towns, Paying for Sidewalks Isn’t Always Simple – Missoula, Montana

For decades, the city of Missoula, Mont., had a pretty simple rule concerning sidewalks: if you want one, you pay for it. Property owners would be assessed the construction fee of building sidewalk in front of their property, which in Missoula’s early days was not very common. But as the city has grown and the community has called for a more walkable public realm, relying on property owners to cough up the thousands of dollars to build publicly accessible sidewalks has become less than ideal. So city leaders are considering a new process that would shift much of the cost to the taxpayers of the city at large.

Nate Berg

Full Story: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/01/smaller-towns-building-sidewalks-isnt-always-simple/920/

(Many thanks to Ray Lanfear for passing this along)