TOWN OF MANLIUS – A group of residents of the neighborhoods around Enders Road are hoping to generate community support for a sidewalk that would run the 1.1-mile length of the road between Route 173 to Route 92.
Enders Road, which is home to Eagle Hill Middle School and Enders Road Elementary School, has considerable pedestrian traffic of children walking to and from the campuses, or heading over to the commercial district around the intersection of Enders and Route 92.
“They literally walk in the road because the shoulder is only about a foot wide,” said Monica Browning, the de facto leader of the group supporting the sidewalk. “The only place they can walk is either through people’s yards or on the road.”
If successful, this would be the first time the town of Manlius’ new Neighborhood Sidewalk Program would be implemented. The program is a citizen-led initiative in which residents display a safety risk or need and generate support for the creation of a sidewalk district.
The target area for the sidewalk district includes 501 parcels in the Mallard’s Landing and Glen Eagle subdivisions on the west side of Enders and the neighborhood around Penstock Way to the east of Enders. It also includes the commercial district at the intersection of Enders and Route 92.
The sidewalk would only be constructed on Enders Road and not in the surrounding neighborhoods.
In order to qualify for a sidewalk, the group has to have at least 65 percent of the residents in the district sign a petition in favor. They then need to present the district plan to the town board which would start the process of mapping and planning the sidewalk and generate quotes for the work.
So far, Browning said, they have signatures from about 44 percent of the households in the district. Only five residents that have been solicited have opted not to sign the petition, she said.
“Overall, people have been really supportive of this,” Browning said. “Even the people whose property this is going to go on, they have been very supportive of this.”
The sidewalk district is subject to a permissive referendum, meaning that if 5 percent of the residents sign a petition in opposition to the district, it would force a vote on the sidewalk district.
Although the numbers aren’t firm, former Councilor Elaine Denton, who led the charge to establish the sidewalk program, estimated the cost of the sidewalk would be around $1 million. Federal and state grants could fund 70 to 80 percent of the project’s cost, she said.
Denton said the annual cost to property owners would be capped at $50 per household and $150 for commercial parcels.
The town of Manlius would own and maintain the sidewalk. Although the town doesn’t own any sidewalk plowing equipment, it would contract out snow removal services, potentially from the village of Manlius.