In any city, the land is divided into public and private space. Private space is land owned and maintained by individuals and corporations, and public space is land that is owned and maintained by public bodies (cities, counties, park boards, etc.). Streets and sidewalks, as well as the space above and below them, are examples of public space. Whenever private individuals or corporations encroach on public space, some sort of compensation is naturally due to the public body on whose land they encroach.

Thus, for decades there has been an ordinance on the books that requires the private owners of pedestrian bridges and underground vaults that encroach on public spaces to get a permit. In order to get a permit, they have to pay an annual fee and assume liability for any damage to the streets, alleys, and sidewalks as a result of their encroachment.

But according to a recent Journal Star article, the City of Peoria hasn’t collected any fees for these encroachments for decades. Upon discovering this oversight, you might think that the City — which is hurting for money — would jump on the chance to restore this income stream, modest though it may be.

But no. Instead, they’re thinking about just getting rid of it.

[Public Works Director David] Barber also said he’s unsure if it’s even worth the city’s trouble to assess the fee.

“We don’t have an inventory on these things since they go back so many years,” Barber said. “We would need access to the properties, we need to measure them and, frankly, we don’t have the time to do all of that.”

First of all, the city deserves to be compensated for private encroachment on public space. This is standard practice for all types of encroachment — for instance, the permit fees that street vendors have to pay to sell food from pushcarts on the courthouse square. The city doesn’t seem to have any trouble measuring how much space these vendors are taking up, charging them fees, etc.

Secondly, there’s a liability issue here that every city with skyways and underground vaults recognizes. These encroachments need to be inventoried and insured at the private owners’ expense for the safety of the city and its citizens.

Thirdly, it’s not unreasonable to recover the city’s costs for administering this permit process through a reasonable fee assessed to the businesses. The city needs to do the responsible thing and update their ordinance to raise the fees to 2009 dollars, and finally start enforcing this ordinance that has been neglected far too long.