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

Greenville City Code § 6-2-43, adopted by Ordinance No. 1524 in 1985 within Title 6, Chapter 2, Article C (Excavations and Street Maintenance), assigns sidewalk upkeep to the city rather than the abutting owner. Subsection (C) states plainly that maintenance and upkeep of city streets, curbs and gutters, sidewalks and other public areas, including patching of potholes and cracks, is the sole responsibility of the Public Works Department, and it is unlawful for any other person to attempt a repair or patch. The rule grew out of the article's original purpose: after a utility or private excavation permit under § 6-2-41 or § 6-2-42 is closed out, subsection (A) directs Public Works to repair and patch the disturbed street, curb, gutter or sidewalk, billing the permittee under the utility street cuts schedule in the city's Manual of Fees, and subsection (B) requires the permittee to notify Public Works at once if the excavation departs from what the original permit described so cost estimates can be revised.

Property owners are not shut out of sidewalk work altogether: § 6-2-12 lets an owner who wants to lay a concrete sidewalk abutting his or her own property do so, but only if it is built to the specifications and Manual of Standard Designs and Details prescribed by the City Engineer, and violating that construction standard is itself unlawful. In practice, a resident who notices a cracked or heaving sidewalk panel abutting their lot should report it to Public Works for city repair rather than patch it themselves, since self-help repair of the public sidewalk is what the ordinance forbids, not damage to the sidewalk itself.