# Virginia, Arizona, and Colorado Sidewalk Law: May, Must, and No Petition Required

> Virginia state law makes sidewalk repair a locality option, never an owner duty. Arizona lets common-council towns order owners to build. Colorado exempts sidewalks from the owner-petition requirement most improvements need. Verified verbatim.

Updated: 2026-09-05. Source: Who Pays the Repair? — https://whopaystherepair.com/guides/virginia-arizona-colorado-sidewalk-law/ (claims cited to primary sources; see /methodology/).

Three states, three completely different grammatical moods. Virginia's sidewalk statute says "may" and means the city. Arizona's says "may require" and means you, in certain towns. Colorado's most interesting sentence is about a petition you never get to sign.

## Virginia: a locality option, not an owner duty

Va. Code Sec. 15.2-2001, in full relevant part: "Localities may make, improve and repair sidewalks upon all public rights-of-way and may convert sidewalks to bicycle paths."

That is the statewide grant, and notice what it is not: it is not a mandate on anyone. The locality may repair; nothing in this section orders the abutting owner to do anything. In Virginia, any owner-pays sidewalk rule is a local ordinance or charter creation, so a repair notice should cite the local provision, not the state code. Our verified [Richmond record](/rules/richmond-va-sidewalk-repair/) shows how the capital actually handles it.

## Arizona: the common-council power

A.R.S. Sec. 9-243(A) is a genuine owner mandate, but a scoped one: "The common council may require the proprietor of any block, lot or part of a lot within the town to construct a sidewalk in front thereof of a width and type of construction as it may direct," and "upon failure of the proprietor to construct the sidewalk within a time to be prescribed after notice so to do it may be constructed by the town, and the expense thereof assessed against the block, lot or part thereof."

The scope matters: this section sits in the statutes governing towns under the common-council form of government. Arizona's charter cities (Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa and most of the big ones) write their own sidewalk rules under charter powers instead. So the honest Arizona answer is two-tier: small common-council towns run on 9-243's require-or-we-build-and-assess machine; the big cities each have their own ordinance, which is why we verify city by city; see our [Mesa record](/rules/mesa-az-sidewalk-repair/) for how a charter city writes its own version.

## Colorado: the petition you do not get to sign

Colorado's local-improvement statute, C.R.S. 31-25-503, contains a protection and an exception in the same sentence: "No improvement, except as provided in paragraph (d) of this subsection (1) and except for sidewalks, water mains, sewers, and sewage disposal works and their appurtenances, shall be ordered under this part 5 unless a petition for the same is first presented," a petition that must be "subscribed by the owners of property to be assessed for more than one-half of the entire costs."

Read the exception list: sidewalks. For most local improvements, Colorado owners hold a veto, since a majority-by-assessed-cost has to ask for the project before it can be ordered. Sidewalks are carved out of that protection entirely. The governing body can order a sidewalk improvement, and the assessment that follows, without any owner petition at all. It is the exact inverse of South Carolina, where sidewalk assessments require two-thirds written owner consent. Same machine, opposite switch.

## What to do

- Virginia: make them cite the local law. The state code gives your city the option to repair, not the power to bill you. An owner-pays notice stands or falls on the local ordinance it cites.

- Arizona: know which kind of municipality you are in. Common-council town, then 9-243's notice-deadline-assess sequence is the rulebook; charter city, then the city code is, and the state section is beside the point.

- Colorado: do not wait for a petition. Sidewalk projects need no owner sign-off, so the first document you see may be the assessment itself. The contestable surface is the math and the procedure, not whether you asked for the sidewalk.

Sources: [Va. Code 15.2-2001](https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title15.2/chapter20/section15.2-2001/) (official law.lis.virginia.gov, quoted verbatim), [A.R.S. 9-243](https://www.azleg.gov/ars/9/00243.htm) (official azleg.gov, quoted verbatim), and [C.R.S. 31-25-503](https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/title-31/article-25/part-5/section-31-25-503/) (via Justia's code archive, disclosed per [our methodology](/methodology/)). City rules live in [the complete city guide](/guides/complete-city-guide/).