The property owner has gone to the limits of their property, which is what the Township requires. When the adjoining property is developed, that section of sidewalk will be required to be installed at that time.

Seems the Township, knowing that the approved sidewalk would dead-end and that the adjacent property might never be developed further, should have required the developer to install a small access point for pedestrians. After all, there's little purpose in having the sidewalk there if it's difficult to access.

Regardless of the safety and convenience to ordinary pedestrians, doesn't the ADA require such access at both ends of a walkway? Given that there is a ramp at the other end of the sidewalk, a wheelchair-bound individual would not be able to leave the sidewalk once they entered it.

I also note that The Grove developer both sodded and installed irrigation well past the end of the sidewalk to the driveway of the adjacent property. Shouldn't the sidewalk have extended there as well?

The issue you have raised concerning the "dead end" sidewalk is something we have dealt with in similar areas of Patton Township. This usually occurs when a parcel redevelops in an area where the adjacent property has already been developed prior to the sidewalk requirements contained in the Township Code. The North Atherton Street corridor is one example. Your suggestion of installing an access point from the sidewalk to Toftrees Avenue is not desirable because it creates a mid-block crossing with nowhere to go...at this time. Our policy in the past has been to require sidewalks to be continued by the adjacent property owner at the time when a land development plan has been submitted to the Township. In the short term this does create segmented sections of sidewalk which as you have expressed are not desirable. However, over time, those segments will get filled.

In this particular case the owners of the adjacent property are planning an improvement in this area and we will have discussions with them concerning the continuation of the sidewalk along Toftrees Avenue. At appropriate areas we will require the proper ADA ramps where the sidewalk crosses driveways and at intersections. I am unsure of how far the sidewalk continuation will occur and what the time frame for completion is but the Township strives and desires to have the same outcome you have expressed.

You also brought up a good point that an ADA pedestrian may begin traveling up the sidewalk and find out the sidewalk ends. We will have the Grove install a sign which indicates that beyond the driveway for the Grove the sidewalk is not ADA accessible at this time.

Again we do thank you for your comments and concerns.