Fixing Olympia’s sidewalks will take 100-plus years, city says. What’s the plan?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Olympia identified nearly 28,000 sidewalk locations that need repairs.
- The City Council approved $500,000 annually in 2024 and later a four-person sidewalk crew.
- Staff will present draft sidewalk policy to Land Use on May 28, then the council July 21.
The city of Olympia’s Planning Commission met May 4 to discuss long-term strategies to do the nearly 28,000 sidewalk repairs needed throughout the city. Principal Planner Michelle Swanson said the goal is to figure out where the city should focus its resources, and what the role of property owners should be in fixing sidewalks.
Swanson said during the meeting that the city already has a program and dedicated funding for building new sidewalks, but there isn’t much being done in terms of addressing the city’s existing 226 linear miles of sidewalks.
She said staff presented to the Land Use and Environment Committee back in 2023 different ways to address the problem. Then they realized they needed to know the full extent of the problem, and how many sidewalks needed to be repaired.
Land Use then had city staff conduct a full inventory of the sidewalk network and its condition. That was done in 2024, and a capital program for sidewalk repairs was approved by the City Council that same year, dedicating $500,000 annually to sidewalk repairs.
Swanson said the city received the results of the sidewalk inventory in 2025, and the City Council approved funding for a four-person crew dedicated to sidewalk repairs.
The Olympian previously reported that consultant Cross Reiter identified almost 28,000 unique locations in Olympia’s sidewalks that need repairs. Out of those, 1,458 were labeled as having high severity damage, and another 4,305 as having moderate severity damage.
Associate Planner Max DeJarnatt said during an Aug. 4 meeting that the city’s code on sidewalks has gone relatively unchanged since 1909.
DeJarnatt previously said the sidewalk damage was sorted into three different categories. Engineers measured lifts of a half inch or more and put them into three severity brackets, with the most severe being those over an inch and a half.
He said if the city takes all severity level one uplifts and cracking, all utility vault defects and half of the severity level two uplifts and cracking, there’d be 2,452 panel replacements needed. He said that would cost between $36 million and $76 million, depending on whether city crews do the work or a contractor does.
DeJarnatt said it could take more than 100 years to fix less than half of the sidewalk panels that need to be fixed.
Swanson said currently, like most cities in the U.S., the city’s code holds property owners responsible for maintaining sidewalks that are adjacent to their property. And, like most cities, Olympia has found it difficult to enforce this code.
She said the city is also not alone in having enforced code unevenly. The current, interim strategy is: someone reports sidewalk damage to the city, and the city sends a letter to the property owner advising them of their responsibility to fix it. The city will also repair sidewalks as resources allow on the same streets where they maintain street trees.
Swanson said city staff made a story map for Olympia’s sidewalks and asked for public feedback on the issue in March. The story map can be viewed online.
She said the majority of folks they received feedback from preferred that the city prioritize sidewalk repairs near high-traffic pedestrian destinations, rather than just street tree corridors.
She said the majority of people also preferred that only larger property owners be responsible for sidewalk repairs, such as schools, parks, shopping centers and apartment complexes.
Swanson said some folks reported it was hard to find a contractor who could work on their sidewalk. And for small property owners, particularly single-family homeowners, the expense of fixing a sidewalk could be daunting.
Overall, she said they heard people think the city should be responsible for fixing sidewalks.
Swanson said staff will be drafting a policy to go to the Land Use and Environment Committee Meeting on May 28. Staff will ask for feedback on the policy and a recommendation to take it to the full council for a study session on July 21.
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