Staff report: Winter Sidewalk Maintenance Review and Potential Service Enhancements Workshop

City staff from Transportation Services; Parks, Forestry & Cemetery Services (PFSC); Municipal Enforcement Services; and Corporate Communications formed a working group to initiate a comprehensive review of the City’s winter sidewalk clearing practices, and presented an advance report to Council on Monday, May 29, 2023. The report is available on page 36 of the May 29, 2023 Council Packet.

As part of this review, the City’s working group identified various challenges with winter sidewalk clearing services including:

• Windrows creating barriers at intersections and bus stops;
• Issues associated with “curb-faced” sidewalk;
• School routes; and
• Ease of reporting, service time, delay in response and incomplete routes

Following a thorough review, staff have identified key conclusions that will enable Council to make informed decisions about any potential adjustments to the current level of winter snow clearing that occurs in Waterloo. Staff have also developed a number of options to address potential service enhancements. Service enhancements can vary in size, timing to implement and cost and as such would have different impacts on future annual property tax rates.

Three potential service options were presented to Council for discussion and prioritization in a Council Workshop. The webstream of the Council workshop video can be viewed on YouTube.

The Winter Sidewalk working group will return to Council on Monday, June 26 with final recommendations.