Denver residents will have to wait a bit longer before seeing any significant sidewalks improvements.

That’s because a Denver City Council committee voted Monday to further delay the Sidewalk Program and Sidewalk Fund approved by voters in 2022.

That provides the Department of Transportation more time to create and execute the billing plan, members said.

The Land Use, Transportation, and Infrastructure committee voted 6-0 in favor of delaying Ordinance 307, the voter-approved measure that created the program to repair neighborhood sidewalks in Denver. 

Property owners fund the program, which means that the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) — which oversees the program design — is responsible for creating a billing system to send out statements to the property owners.

Billing could begin as early as January 2025, but setting up a billing system for the repairs is by no means an easy task.

“It will take a good amount of time to build the billing system, test it and make sure it works as intended,” said City Councilmember Kevin Flynn, in an email statement. “DOTI wants to have enough runway ahead of implementation to make sure the billings are all correct.”

Final changes to the fee structure will occur over the next couple of weeks, and then DOTI will present the changes to the full City Council, according to City Councilmember Paul Kashmann.

If this resolution to delay billing advances, it could mean that the entire plan to fix Denver sidewalks will be postponed to a future, unspecified date.

This is not the first time the plan for sidewalk repairs has been delayed.

In November 2022, Denver residents passed the original bill to transfer the responsibility of repairing sidewalks from Denver residents to the city.

Although voters mandated the city handle the sidewalk repairs, the ballot measure required property owners fund the sidewalk program with each property owner paying based on the amount of linear square footage of sidewalk in front of their property, according to a report from the city of Denver.

DOTI was originally scheduled to administer the repair fee and begin construction in January, but in October 2023, the Denver City Council postponed the date to July, after encountering complications with the billing process structure.

January 2025 is the new proposed date to begin repairs, but Flynn suggests that those dates are not set in concrete.

“It is up to DOTI to decide on the dates for all this work,” Flynn said.

Kashmann also expressed uncertainty about the implementation date and said that the DOTI requires a significant amount time to construct a billing system.

Nancy Kuhn, the marketing and communications director for DOTI, said that sidewalk repair work could begin as early as next year.

“We expect some repair work to start in Q2 of next year and to begin the master planning process that will provide greater detail on how sidewalks will be built and repaired throughout the city,” said Kuhn.

The City City Council will take up the issue in coming weeks.