Mayor Talks Sidewalks, Market House and Holidays

In his November monthly video update, available on the city of Annapolis' YouTube channel, Mayor Josh Cohen addresses two hot-button issues—the city sidewalk fund and the Market House.

Last week, Cohen introduced legislation that aims to to repeal “the City’s responsibility for repair and reconstruction of sidewalks located upon the City right of way or upon private property when the general public has traditionally used those sidewalk," as noted in the ordinance.

Cohen notes in the video that “up until a few years ago, the responsibility to repair sidewalks as well as the liability rested on the private property owner that abutted the sidewalk.”

The city took on the responsibility and created a sidewalk fund—but the fee was repealed after public complaint, Cohen said in the video.

Cohen notes that the two options he sees are to either give the responsibility and liability back to the property owners or create “some sort of revenue stream” to go toward sidewalk repairs.

There will be a public hearing on the proposed legislation, which accompanies this story, at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

This week, WBAL spoke with several Annapolis residents who said they didn’t feel like the maintenance responsibility should be up to property owners.

In addition, The Capital, which first reported the story, noted several municipalities in the state in which homeowners are responsible for sidewalk repairs.

“My main concern with this legislation, my main goal, is not so much to put the responsibility back on the property owners or for the city to maintain it but it’s to recognize that there needs to be a revenue source to pay for this,” Cohen told Patch after last week’s council meeting.

Market House

The mayor also provides an update on the Market House in his video address, noting that the council voted last week on legislation that will allow the public works director to seek out bids for a Market House manager or management company. It will also allow tenant leases of up to five years.

The Capital reported that in this vote, the council did not pass a vote to allow beer and liquor sales in the historic building.

In the video, the mayor also provided updates on several upcoming holiday events and services.