SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Bill Leggett has owned his house in South Burlington since 1992.
He saw the retaining walls come up in 1994 and now watches as they crumble over him and his neighbor’s yard.
“There’s no question it’s starting to be a safety issues and something needs to be done,” said Leggett.
Leggett says it’s up to the city to fix them, as they were originally built as part of a sidewalk project in the area.
“The issue is they built the walls, there’s been no record of easement or compensation for the land, so irregardless I don’t know what absolves them from responsibility for further maintenance,” said Leggett.
Tom DiPietro with South Burlington public works says the city has always assumed the property owners would keep up with the maintenance.
But nobody can find any records from when the walls were built, so the city has to go with what’s there.
”So we’re sort of just left with what’s on the ground today to kind of figure out where we go from here,” said DiPietro.
The question is whether these property lines mark the retaining walls as the responsibility of the city of South Burlington, or the responsibility of the people who live in these houses.
City officials say some parts of the wall, like the front, may fall under the city’s responsibility. But other places, like the backside of the wall, curve up onto private lawns
The city had a surveyor pick out the property pins, and is figuring out next steps.
“So trying to figure out what that mean going forward is where we’re at right now. So I’m going to be talking to folks internally here, and then reaching out to property owners again to kind of figure out next steps and what to do,” said DiPietro.
But Leggett says even if some of the walls might be on private property it doesn’t mean the owners should be responsible for the upkeep.
“The retaining walls go up people’s driveways, it goes one people’s land, but again there’s no easement, there’s no compensation for the land, so who’s responsible, again there’s no documentation of further maintenance,” said Leggett.
The city says if it does fall to their responsibility, they will have to find the money to eventually make the repairs but don’t feel the walls need immediate action.