Sidewalk Surprise

New Denver Pavement Plans Include Unexpected Shocks For Thousands of Homeowners

By Mark Silverstein | For the GPHN

The city’s new sidewalk program is kicking into high gear — and it is likely to pack a shocking punch of a surprise to thousands of Denver homeowners. 

The recently-published goals and plans for rebuilding Denver’s sidewalk network threaten to reclaim and build out currently-unused city-owned right of way. Residents in impacted areas stand to lose wide swaths of what they have long treated (with Denver’s acquiescence) as a functional part of their front yards. 

In Park Hill alone, roughly two-thirds of the neighborhood is targeted for sidewalk construction or reconstruction. In many cases, building these new sidewalks to city standards will bring the new pavement surprisingly closer to residents’ doorsteps — some within arm’s reach of their front steps. 

Bigly ambitions

In 2022, Denver voters approved the “Denver Deserves Sidewalks” ballot measure, an expansive plan to build, upgrade and repair the city’s entire 3,500-mile network of sidewalks in less than a decade.  

The ballot measure made a huge change in the financing and responsibility for sidewalks. Until 2022, property owners were responsible for building, maintaining, and repairing the sidewalks adjoining their lots. The 2022 ballot measure shifted responsibility to the city, specifically its Department of Transportation & Infrastructure (DOTI). 

The City Council tweaked the financing formula with a 2024 ordinance, which established a new tax that went into effect in early 2025. Most property owners are now paying a flat fee of $150 per year, raising an estimated $40 million to $97.5 million to fund the sidewalk projects.

In late March, after the program’s first year of operation, DOTI released a comprehensive Sidewalk Implementation Plan: State of the System report (“SOTS Report” — online at tinyurl.com/SOTSReport). Denver describes this report as a first step in developing a master Sidewalk Implementation Plan in the remainder of this year.  

The SOTS Report lays out multiple reasons why an accessible, safe, and connected sidewalk network is critical for an equitable and vibrant city. Sidewalks are essential for Denver residents who do not or cannot depend on cars. They are especially important for persons with disabilities. More than 30 years after passage of the Americans for Disabilities Act (ADA), Denver’s sidewalks have yet to comply with the statute’s minimum standards.

The mandate to DOTI is bigly ambitious. Denver voters and the city council have committed to a nine-year building blitz with three primary goals: 

• Denver will build sidewalks along streets that currently have none. (Approximately 9 percent of Denver’s sidewalks — 318 miles — are missing.)

• Denver will repair deteriorated sidewalks with broken or crumbling pavement or large gaps or dangerous elevation differences between panels. (Five percent of Denver’s sidewalks — 1,233 blocks — need repair.) 

• Finally, Denver will reconstruct and rebuild “deficient width sidewalks” that are too narrow and will bring them up to current city standards. (A whopping 34 percent of Denver’s existing sidewalk network — 1,162 miles — is too narrow and must be rebuilt.)

Two-thirds of Park Hill is deficient

It is this third goal — rebuilding “deficient width sidewalks” — that plants the seed for the upcoming surprise for many local homeowners. 

Current city standards require sidewalks to be wide enough for two pedestrians to walk side by side. They must be wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs, and they must comply with the regulations of the ADA. 

Accordingly, Denver’s sidewalk program labels sidewalks as “deficient” when they are less than five feet wide. Therein lies a big problem: miles of the city’s sidewalks in Park Hill and other neighborhoods are less than three feet wide.

Denver’s State of the System Report includes a citywide interactive map that shows where sidewalks are narrower than the required five-foot minimum, as well as where they are missing entirely or in need of repair. (Check the map out online at tinyurl.com/DenverSOTSMap — you can look up the status of your own sidewalk.)

In Park Hill, 84 miles of sidewalk — roughly two-thirds of the residential area — is identified as having “deficient width sidewalks” that DOTI’s report targets for rebuilding.

The area includes almost all of Park Hill’s existing sidewalks east of Kearney Street, and the overwhelming majority of sidewalks north of 26th Avenue.

Sidewalks, Hollywood-style

Denver distinguishes between “attached” and “detached” sidewalks. Traditional sidewalks in residential areas are “detached” — meaning that they are separated from the curb by a landscaped buffer. Denver calls those buffers a “tree lawn” and they are commonly called “hell strips.” (See related story — Whaddya Call That… —at the bottom of this page.)

Another type of sidewalk is an “attached” sidewalk, which is directly adjacent to the street curb, and has no hell strip buffer. 

Most of the deficiently narrow sidewalks in Park Hill, and in the rest of the city, are a type of attached sidewalk that DOTI calls “Hollywood” sidewalks. These narrow strips of pavement provide less than three feet of level space before sloping directly into the street—there is no separate curb. 

The angled curb of Hollywoods provide less protection from cars than standard vertical curbs. Their narrow width violates the ADA, making wheelchair access nearly impossible. They also prevent people from walking side-by-side and expose pedestrians to dangerous proximity to passing vehicles. 

It is unclear where Denver came up with the Hollywood term, but these sidewalks are especially common in Denver and around the country in neighborhoods built in the three decades after World War II — including much of Park Hill. 

Early proponents of the design noted that it catered to the increasingly car-centric culture (“who walks any more?” they said). Hollywoods also allowed for larger front lawns. Or what looked like larger front lawns. 

About that landscaping…

And now those seemingly larger front lawns are threatened by Denver’s plans. Residential streets with attached sidewalks — especially narrow Hollywood sidewalks — forego the traditional hell strip that separates the paved sidewalk from the street. As a result, the paved area (street plus sidewalk) does not occupy all of the city-owned right-of-way. 

Large portions of what many residents have long regarded as part of their front lawns are actually part of the as-yet-unused city-owned right of way. 

Many homeowners have built walkways, steps, railings, retaining walls, raised beds, shrubs, and even fences all the way up to the edge of the attached Hollywood sidewalks. DOTI refers to these homeowner-installed constructions on the city’s right of way as as “encroachments.”

Denver’s SOTS Report states that fulfilling the mandate to reconstruct the sidewalk network may require using the full city-owned right-of-way, including when homeowners’ encroachments are in the way. 

Upgrading a narrow Hollywood sidewalk to city standards requires more than just adding a couple extra feet of pavement. When the city-owned right of way is wide enough, says DOTI spokesperson Nancy Kuhn, Denver’s standards require an eight-foot buffer (hell strip) between the new five-foot sidewalk and the street. 

When the roadway is classified as an arterial street, city standards require the sidewalks to be at least eight feet wide. For residents living with Hollywood sidewalks, fulfilling the new mandate may mean losing a sizable chunk of what they have long regarded as an integral part of their front yard. 

So how large a portion of a resident’s front yard is potentially at risk from the city’s plan? For many homeowners living on Park Hill’s residential streets with Hollywood sidewalks, the as-yet-unused city-owned right-of-way extends approximately nine feet from the edge of the current sidewalk (see accompanying story below).

DOTI doesn’t say

As the sidewalk project kicks into gear, many Denver homeowners will surely be surprised to learn that their property ends just a couple steps from their front door. And many will certainly be unhappy with the prospect of a public sidewalk within arm’s reach of their front steps. 

Homeowners will undoubtedly be disappointed to learn they might lose their shrubs, decorative walkways and fencing, raised beds and other landscaping that have been built on what they may learn for the first time is actually city property. 

For their part, Denver officials declare that narrow sidewalks will be rebuilt to city standards, and those standards require an eight-foot-wide hell strip in addition to a five-foot-wide sidewalk. The city’s plan likely clashes with the expectations of many homeowners, who stand to lose up to nine feet of what they have regarded as their front lawns. 

How will this tension be resolved?   

Denver’s SOTS Report acknowledges some “competing factors” that DOTI “will need to weigh,” but it appears purposely vague. Notably, it provides no details about how to weigh competing factors — nor how to resolve them. 

In some cases, the report notes, there may not be enough space to rebuild a sidewalk to city standards. Instead of suggesting that those standards might be relaxed, the report states that Denver may need to acquire “small amounts of private property.” When discussing encroachments installed by homeowners, DOTI notes its need to use the full public right-of-way. The agency pledges to “work with” property owners “to resolve any issues,” but it provides no additional details. 

The report notes that the “tree canopy” may compete for space with the sidewalk network. 

Without mentioning that Denver’s standards require an eight-foot buffer, DOTI says, without elaboration, that both sidewalks and “tree lawns” (i.e.hell strips) are important, and it will “be working through the necessary challenges and tradeoffs.” Again, no details. Do those potential tradeoffs include chopping down trees instead of relaxing sidewalk standards? Does it mean narrowing the required hell strip? DOTI doesn’t say. 

In another section, the SOTS Report hints that one potential tradeoff could be to replace narrow sidewalks in some locations with wider attached sidewalks. (The report fails to note that in such a case, DOTI’s accessibility standards may require a sidewalk even wider than five feet.) Factors to be considered, the report states, are “available public right-of-way, street context, drainage requirements, and cost.”

In the months ahead

DOTI is currently working to create a “Master Sidewalk Implementation Plan,” as required by the 2022 ballot measure and the 2024 ordinance. According to DOTI, the plan will outline in more detail “where, when, and how the Sidewalk Program will build a complete sidewalk network.” The plan will provide “guidance on where building detached sidewalks is most appropriate and feasible.” 

The agency plans to solicit public feedback on the plan in the coming months, beginning in June. 

This next round of “public engagement” provides an opportunity for DOTI to explain in more detail how it intends to address what it acknowledges are “competing factors” and potential tradeoffs and to resolve the tension between Denver’s ambitious goals, the city’s exacting rigorous standards, and the potential impacts on homeowners who risk losing what they have regarded as their front yards. 

Stay tuned for updates.

Farewell,  Front Yard

Park Hill Homeowners With ‘Hollywood’ Sidewalks Could Lose Nine Feet Of What They Have Treated As Their Property

In order to rebuild narrow Hollywood sidewalks to city standards, Denver states that it may need to use the full city-owned right-of-way. 

Where is the line between the city’s right-of-way and the homeowner’s private property? 

In neighborhoods where a hell strip separates the sidewalk from the street, homeowners are generally safe to assume that their property extends to the edge of the sidewalk. 

For Park Hill residents living in homes with narrow (less than three feet)  Hollywood sidewalks attached to the street, the answer is different. It appears that the city-owned right-of-way may extend as far as nine additional feet into what people have long assumed to be their front yards. 

Here are the calculations: On Park Hill’s typical residential streets with deficiently narrow attached sidewalks, Denver’s plat maps show that the city-owned right-of-way is 60 feet wide. The streets themselves, however, are only 36 feet wide. 

Thus, the city owns an additional 24 feet — 12 feet on each side of the street. By replacing the Hollywood sidewalk and using the full city-owned right-of-way, Denver could build a standard five-foot sidewalk, with an additional seven feet for a hell strip.

For these property owners, their new sidewalks would be approximately nine-feet closer to their front doors.

— Mark Silverstein

Whaddya Call That Strip Of Land?

Whaddya Call That Strip Of Land?

Speaking of sidewalks, just what is the word for that strip of land between the concrete and the curb? 

Tree lawn? Hell strip? Whaddyamacallits? 

An astounding amount of variation exists. Denver officials call the buffer between the street and the sidewalk an “amenity zone,” or a “tree lawn.”

The Greater Park Hill News uses the commonly-used “hell strips.” A variant of that is “devil strip.” In New Orleans they are often called “no man’s land” or “neutral ground.” 

The terms “parkway” or “boulevard” are common for the often-landscaped buffers. Additional terms include “berm,” “terrace,” and multiple iterations of “strip” — such as  grass strip, nature strip, park strip and curb strip.

The city’s standards require that residential sidewalks be detached from the street and sheltered by one of these whaddyamacallits, though the city’s miles of attached sidewalks reveal rampant noncompliance. 

According to Josh Katz’s book Speaking American, the younger you are, the less likely you even have a word for that special street-adjacent zone: 87 percent of people born since 1995 have no word at all for that whatzit.  

— Mark Silverstein