Franklin Township, PA Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Sidewalk Repair (2026)

Franklin Township's zoning code creates its Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) District to concentrate walkable, sidewalk-lined development around Kemblesville and similar village-scale nodes. Section 27-903, General Design Principles, sets the physical standards: sidewalks on both sides of every street except alleys, a minimum five-foot width (12 to 18 feet in commercial stretches), and concrete or brick construction. Subsection 1.J(3) then assigns upkeep: sidewalks 'shall be maintained and repaired on an on-going basis by the lot owner and/or homeowners' association, and/or the property owners' association,' not the Township's public works crews. That duty runs with the individual lot inside the TND District; the Township's separate Chapter 21, Streets and Sidewalks, addresses street-opening permits rather than sidewalk repair, so this TND clause is the Code's only express repair-responsibility rule for the concrete underfoot.

Compliance is checked by the Zoning Officer as part of ordinary TND design review, since the standard sits inside the zoning chapter's design-principles article rather than a stand-alone public-works section. A property owner, homeowners' association, or property owners' association that lets a walk crack, heave, or wash out is treated as violating this section of the zoning chapter, not a separate sidewalk ordinance. Because the duty is written into the TND District's design standards, it binds parcels developed or redeveloped under that district's rules; the Board of Supervisors amended the surrounding TND provisions in 2007 and 2008 without touching this maintenance clause. Owners outside the TND District should check their subdivision's recorded declaration of covenants, since the Code's site-plan rules for other districts route sidewalk questions through those private agreements instead.