In November, 2020, three resident-petitioned propositions to change the Bellaire City Charter in order to regulate the installation of sidewalks appeared on the ballot of a Special Election. A group called Bellaire Citizens for Sidewalk Choice submitted the petitions which called for specific regulations controlling the process of installing a new sidewalk.

Another group of residents opposing these amendments campaigned against them under the name SafeBellaire. These residents believed the proposed amendments would kill sidewalks in Bellaire because the process would be too difficult to navigate. They also believed the City Charter was not the place to regulate sidewalks or public safety.

Out of three Propostions, only Prop A passed. That proposition has proved to be an obstacle in the installation of sidewalks in the final phase of the Bonds for Better Bellaire 2016 Group C Phase 3 Streets and Drainage Program.

At the February 21 Bellaire City Council meeting Council voted to decrease the amount for construction of the Bonds for Better Bellaire 2016 Group C Phase 3 Streets and Drainage – Chelsea Street, Mimosa Street, Cedar Street, and Larch Lane project from the total bid of $3,839,987.12 to $3,712,564.12. This amount reflects a reduction in the bid for construction of sidewalks that routinely are installed with new streets and draining improvements.

Due to the change in the City’s Charter, voted on in the 2020 Special Sidewalk Election, the requirement to implement Prop A would delay the project in a time frame that would not allow the City to qualify for Grant money to finance the Group C Phase 3 project.

Mike Leech, Bellaire Public Works Director, included the following overview of the sidewalk design as included in the construction plans.

4500 block of Larch Lane – sidewalk designed for north side of the street due to fewer obstacles: very little existing sidewalk

4600 block of Cedar Street – sidewalk designed for north side of the street due to fewer obstacles: very little existing sidewalk

500 block of Chelsea Street -existing sidewalk along east side: only sections in need of repair or impacted by construction to be replaced

4600 block of Mimosa Drive – sidewalk designed for both side of street because of cul-de-sac and fair amount of existing sidewalk (40% existing).

One of the challenges with the installation of new sidewalk with this project is 2020 Sidewalk Proposition 1. Because the design of this project began in 2017, Proposition 1 was not considered; therefore items like the location of sprinkler systems were not included in the survey. Additional, and potentially significant effort would be required to acquire this information through another survey. The requirement for 6 month notification of property owners prior to approval of an ordinance authorizing new sidewalk construction would also be an issue as Council would likely not be able to award the contract for the entire project until the sidewalk Proposition related tasks were completed. The most significant issue with this is that the 6-8 month delay would very likely negatively impact the ability of the City to receive CDBG reimbursement for this project due to the timetables associated with this funding. Harris County administers this allocation of CDBG funding and they have been very clear about their desire to get this project moving.