Bensalem, PA Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Sidewalk Repair (2026)

Section 197-51, added by Ordinance No. 98-24 on July 29, 1998 as Article VI, Public Rights-of-Way, makes the owner of property abutting a public right-of-way responsible for maintaining the curbs, sidewalks, grass areas, trees and other features located between the property line and the cartway. The owner's listed duties include repairing concrete or macadam curbs and sidewalks, periodically cutting the grass, removing ice and snow, and pruning trees and other vegetation in that strip. The section carves out an exception for public structures such as traffic and street signs, street lights and fire hydrants, which stay the Township's responsibility unless the owner's deliberate or negligent act damaged them.

If an owner fails to keep up the strip, § 197-51(b) lets the Township give 30 days' written notice specifying the work required; the Township is not obligated to step in, but may perform the work itself and charge the owner for the cost. That cost becomes a lien against the abutting property, filed and collected the way liens are handled under Pennsylvania law. The duty overlaps with the separate 24-hour snow and ice removal deadline in § 197-12, since ice and snow removal is one of the maintenance items § 197-51 assigns to the owner.