With more than six miles of sidewalks owned by the city of Excelsior, with their quality ranging from good to poor, the City Council adopted a new sidewalk replacement policy at its April 3 meeting.

This year the city will begin a sidewalk survey to inventory the location, length, width and condition of all the sidewalks in the city.

A timeline will be developed for sidewalk inspections to occur on a regular basis.

In addition, sidewalk replacement will be triggered by citizen complaints, staff observation, new developments and adjacent street reconstruction projects.

The policy sets specific defects that trigger replacement.

The policy calls for major repairs to be completed every five years, while minor repairs will be completed every 10 years.

Sidewalk replacement costs are assessed to the benefiting property.

The policy also calls for notifying property owners of any trees, shrubs or bushes that create an obstruction to sidewalks.