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Agreeing to leave the policy the way it is, the Austin City Council had a conversation during its work session Monday night regarding its Complete Streets policy.

Established in 2012, the policy set out that new street construction or reconstruction would require sidewalks be built along with the projects. However, some landowners within the City of Austin who have been without sidewalks have voiced some concerns over sidewalks being required because it upsets established landscaping and could damage private infrastructure including in lawn sprinkler systems.

A large portion of Austin properties has sidewalks on both sides of the streets or at least one sidewalk. Houses with no sidewalks are largely located in the western, southwestern portion of the community with more pockets located elsewhere.

However, while landowners may chafe at the idea of a sidewalk being built where there previously was none, City Engineer Steven Lang pointed out that oftentimes, grant funding from either the state or federally may be reliant on whether or not a city has something like a Complete Streets policy.

Removing that aspect could result in the city missing out and that “… it might jeopardize our ability to garner future grants,”he said.

“We could lose out to another community that’s got a better project than yours,” he added.

He went on to say that landowners are already bumping up against another city policy that lays out that landowners who install landscaping or sprinklers when there are no well established property boundaries, often dictated by sidewalks, are doing so at their own risk.

“Owners aren’t compensated,” he said, referring to any damages construction or reconstruction may cause.