Gastonia, NC Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Sidewalk Repair (2026)

Section 7-4 of the Code of Ordinances, titled "Drainage-related interference with sidewalks," splits sidewalk-adjacent maintenance duties between private owners and the city. First, no one may run gutters, ditches, ducts, or drainpipes onto their property so that water empties onto or runs across a public sidewalk. Second, and more specifically to repair responsibility, every owner of property abutting a concrete, brick, or other permanently improved public sidewalk must grade that property or construct a retaining wall so dirt, grass, gravel, or other material does not wash onto the city sidewalk.

That duty shifts, though: if the city itself constructed the sidewalk, the city is responsible in the first instance for taking the steps needed to keep that material off the walk. A related provision in the same article, Section 7-6, makes it a separate offense to create conditions that necessitate "special cleaning or repair" of a public sidewalk, defining that repair to include sweeping, flushing, removing mud or debris, resurfacing, and restoring gravel and base to the condition that existed before the violation. Section 7-5 additionally requires anyone doing work that creates a dangerous condition or obstruction in a sidewalk right-of-way to post barricades and warning signs until it is fixed.

Together these sections show the code assigns the erosion-control and cleanliness upkeep touching the sidewalk to the abutting owner, while placing the burden back on the city for sidewalks it built, and treats causing damage that requires repair as its own violation with cost-recovery exposure for whoever caused it.