The sidewalks in front and down the side of our home (on a corner) are about 15 or so feet wide. Code only requires a 4 feet width of sidewalk (as long as it's continuous and straight, not curved).
Currently this is all 3' x 3' concrete pavers (with one square every 30 or feet or so with a tree).
In San Francisco, homeowners are required to upkeep the sidewalks (even though you don't _own_ them), so if there is a crack in one or they need replacing, you pay for it.
Last year we were cited for 36 squares to be replaced...
So, after seeing a piece on the news about a neighborhood replacing their sidewalks with gardens and permeable pavers, we thought we'd do that too. This is not only aesthetically pleasing, it's also good for the environment, less run off to the ocean, more plants for birds/bees/butterflies, etc.
So, we sent in plans for a street-side garden and house-side planters leaving 6' of walk space. All the plants in the landscape plan are San Francisco Bay area natives and the walkways between the gardens (leading from the street to the sidewalk) are made with bricks from our torn out kitchen fireplace (had to for earthquake issues) w/ a permeable mortar.
Well, the city approved the plan... for the side of the house.
In the front, at the far end, there is a beautiful tree that flowers every spring and smells like honey. It's older and leaning a bit. I love the tree and wouldn't want to hurt it. Even though the canopy line (the usual requirement is that you don't disturb under the canopy line) barely reaches across a 1/3 of the front sidewalk, the inspector refuses to allow ANY replacement of the sidewalk for fear of hurting the tree, not even the upper half that is far from the tree. Sad really, considering we are doing this for the environment and aesthetic reasons and it won't hurt the tree (which I LOVE!) and possible help it (more water and nutrients to it's roots).
Sigh...
Well, here are some photos of the work in progress. No plantings yet, but those are coming:
Before (well, this is down the street a bit, we forgot to take photos before):
Here is down the side of the house. We still have plantings to make and one square alongside the house still has yet to be made into planters. The stray bricks you see are holding down bird netting to keep birds from eating the SF bay native wildflower seeds from being eaten. We are planting wildflowers in part, the rest will be other native plants.
Two close ups:
Up the side...
down the side...
Here is an 'across-the-street' shot to show you where the tree is (at end of property line to the left)
Closer in, this is sidewalk we wanted to take out and convert to permeable garden space, but can't:
Perhaps, after everything is in, we can convince them this is a _good_ idea to do..
We are getting a lot of comments and compliments from passerbys and neighbors who llove what we are doing on the side. Even got commitments from some to help us keep it from being messed with and some neighbors are considering doing this to their sidewalk.
We are starting a neighorhood trend? :D
