Taunton, MA Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Sidewalk Repair (2026)

Section 96-56 places the general superintendence of every street, way, lane, sidewalk, bridge and culvert within the street limits under the Supervisor of Streets, acting under the Commissioner of Public Works, and it makes the Supervisor responsible for keeping those ways in repair and safe for public travel at all seasons of the year. That duty extends even to streets and sidewalks on Taunton Housing Authority property once the Municipal Council has accepted them as public ways. This means an abutting property owner in Taunton is not on the hook for fixing a cracked or heaved sidewalk slab the way owners in some other Massachusetts cities are; that is City work.

The one major exception, addressed separately, is snow and ice removal, which Section 383-15 places squarely on the abutting owner. Where the City decides to establish an entirely new sidewalk rather than repair an existing one, a different process applies: it starts with a written petition to the Mayor and Council, a public hearing with seven days' notice to abutters, and, once the sidewalk is built, the Supervisor of Streets reports the construction expense to the Council, which may assess the abutting property owners proportionally for that cost if the original order establishing the sidewalk stated that betterments would be assessed. That assessment authority is limited to new construction and grading, not routine repair of an existing sidewalk.