L.A.’s potential funds for shade-tree root pruning and hardscape repair (Background)

THE CITY OF L.A. runs a rebate program for sidewalk repairs that sounds great in principle. In practice, taking advantage of the offer is somewhat challenging. 

Sidewalk damage caused by “our” street tree

Below the jump, I outline how the program would work in our case, if we applied for a rebate.…

City Rebate Program 

The City is offering a limited-time rebate to property owners who are willing to pay for their own sidewalk repair; see https://sidewalks.lacity.gov/rebates. The Rebate Program is a cost-sharing program. To qualify, however, we must follow certain procedures: hold off on construction, wait for a City inspector to assess our sidewalk pre-repairs, obtain an A-Permit that is linked to our rebate offer, and complete the required construction through the Rebate Program.

Program Details

There are a lot of twists and turns in this program—which I will now proceed to detail. 

1. If we did apply (via MyLA311), we would be given a Service Ticket Number for reference, and then our application would be placed on a waitlist (due to a shortage of funding). 

2. At some point, our eligibility would hopefully get confirmed. In the process, they might request more documentation; we would have 14 days to provide it (except 30 days for the IRS W-9 Form).

(We would not be eligible for the Sidewalk Rebate Program if the City meanwhile decides to issue a "NOTICE TO REPAIR" because of unsafe conditions of the sidewalk. In other words, if we wait until conditions get serious, the cost-sharing option will no longer be available to us.)

3. When we got released from the waitlist, the Bureau of Contract Administration (BCA) and the Urban Forestry Division (UFD) would conduct site inspections, to assess the existing condition of the sidewalk, and determine the scope of work needed to make all of the sidewalk in front of our property ADA Compliant. This includes both cracks and slopes. Meanwhile, a City Arborist would determine the necessary street-tree work required to complete the sidewalk repair. (If the tree can be retained by root pruning or enlarging the planting area, the arborist would provide written instructions.) Together, those agencies would develop a Rebate Offer amount, which would be emailed to us. 

4. Once we receive the scope of work, we would find a qualified contractor and then apply for a Class A-Permit via the link provided in the Rebate Offer email. The normal permit fees would be waived. (It is unclear to me whether the inspection fees related to that permit would likewise be waived, but probably so.)

A Class "A" permit is required for minor work in the public right-of-way for the construction, repair and/or resurfacing of driveways, sidewalks, curbs, etc.

5. With this permit, we would call for a pre-construction meeting where the inspector would come out to our site and walk through with us and/or our contractor to explain the work needed and answer any questions. Then we would commence with construction.

6. When the construction is completed and is “finaled” by the inspector (certifying that everything was built to code and per ADA Regulations), our application would be sent to payment processing, to issue the rebate check. 

Rebate Amount

The rebate amount for the sidewalk repair and replacement would be roughly $2,000 (based on $12/sq ft * 200 sq ft). For the root pruning, it would be about $1,350. In other words, we could expect to be reimbursed at least $3,000, plus the waiver of permit fees (worth $273+). 

The rebate also comes with a 5-year warranty, including a one-time repair by the City.

Rebate valuation calculations look like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PHUH-q4wUKeHnSebu_ov328cGlyvDfJm/view

Deadlines

• Once the Rebate Offer arrives, we must accept it within 14 days or it will expire. (If we do accept, we can opt out at any time before construction begins with no penalty.) 
• From the date of the Rebate Offer, we also would have 60 days to obtain a Class A-Permit for construction from the Bureau of Engineering. 
• After that, we would have 90 days to complete construction with inspection of the necessary repairs.

Operational speed

On September 11, Safe Sidewalks LA wrote to me:

“We are currently experiencing a hold on the applications on the waitlist due to program funding budget cuts. We are looking to begin releasing applications off the waitlist and into eligibility review starting this fall at the earliest. The current waitlist has 207 applications and approximately 20 applications are released from the waitlist every two weeks.”

In other words, there will be a 5-month backlog once the program resumes. (In the meantime, of course, the tree roots would continue to grow and the sidewalk problems would get worse.)