On the Manlius Town Board, I created the Neighborhood Sidewalk Program (NSP) which the board passed in 2023. In order to build sidewalks in the Town of Manlius, the Town Board needs to create a sidewalk special district. With the NSP, neighbors can organize their neighborhoods to show support for a specific sidewalk project enabling the Town Board to create a sidewalk district if the project meets the goals of the NSP.
The first project under this program is the Enders Road Sidewalk District which was awarded $1.1 million from NYS DOT in 2026. If you are interested in starting a sidewalk project in your neighborhood, contact one of your town board representatives or contact me as I am happy to help with these projects.
Goals of the Neighborhood Sidewalk Program is to improve:
- safety
- pedestrian mobility
- connectivity to schools
- connectivity to parks and recreation facilities
- connectivity between multiple land uses
- connectivity to transit options
No matter what road you see in the town. Someone walks there. We need to make it safer for pedestrians to walk through the Town of Manlius. If we improve pedestrian mobility and to connectivity to transit options we increase use of an alternative form of transportation which can decrease traffic and our carbon footprint. By connecting our schools, parks, villages and businesses we will have a healthier lifestyle by improving residents health and helping businesses.
Criteria
Project requests will be evaluated on the following criteria. These criteria will be used to determine a priority for implementation of the neighborhood requests:
- Safety
- Trip Generators
- Land Use (Zoning)
- Neighborhood Cost Share Amount / Availability of Grants
- Construction Feasibility, including available funding, geographic constraints and right of ways.
- Public Support
Process
- Meet with the Town Supervisor or a Town Councilor to present your proposed project and to review the process of creating a sidewalk district in your neighborhood.
- A neighborhood group, Homeowners’ Association or an individual gathers petition signatures from property owners in the desired neighborhood showing support for the project. The Town Board requires at least 65% of property owners in the proposed neighborhood to show support by the petition signatures.
- Once the application and petition are verified by the Town Clerk, the proposed project will be presented at a Town Board meeting.
- If accepted by the Town Board, the town engineer will draft a map, plan and report. This report would include who will be included in the sidewalk district, estimation of costs and grant opportunities.
- Once the map, plan and report is completed, an informational neighborhood meeting will be held to discuss options and cost with residents.
- A required public hearing will be scheduled to hear from residents and present the final proposed sidewalk plan.
- After a public hearing is held, the town board can vote on creating a new sidewalk district which will be subject to a permissive referendum.
- If no petition for referendum is filled within 30 days and the state comptroller approves, the town board resolution becomes effective and the new sidewalk district is formed.
- Once the sidewalk district has been formed, the Town & residents will apply for grants, set up funding for the project and go out to bid for the project.
FAQs
The Town of Manlius will own & maintain the sidewalks.
The Town of Manlius will arrange for snow removal.
You will need to fill out the Neighborhood Sidewalk Program Application with a petition from 65% of property owners in support of forming the district to start the process.
Yes, you need to collect the date, name, address and you can do this using the example paper petition and collect this information with a form online. The Enders Road project used a google form [view here]. I would also recommend an Action Network petition.
The Town Board decides who benefits from the specific project and what parcels would be included.
A permissive referendum is a petition that requests a vote to be held. The referendum petition must be signed by at least 5% of the owners in the proposed district or by 100 property owners, whichever is less. Property owners would have 30 days to pass this petition after the Town Board voted to create the sidewalk district. Then the district would be subject to a vote.
Adding sidewalks to your neighborhood has no impact to your assessment because a sidewalk is for public use.
