The Bend City Council is likely to approve a change to the city’s development code Wednesday that promises a more logical development of sidewalks in the city. That’s an improvement over the current code, which sometimes creates sidewalks that lead nowhere. Currently a homeowner subdividing a lot, adding onto a house or putting in a granny flat or some other alternative dwelling unit must build sidewalks on the street sides of his property if an existing sidewalk is 600 feet away, or closer.

Sidewalks are a valuable city amenity and make moving about less difficult and dangerous. But the result of the city’s policy has had its problems. In some places, on the east side of NE Butler Market Road between NE Jones Road and NE Pilot Butte Drive, for example, small strips of sidewalk front an occasional house.

The city doesn’t plan to do away with the existing sidewalk requirement. Rather, it will give property owners the option of paying a fee rather than building a sidewalk under specific conditions.

If, for example, a new sidewalk would connect to nothing and it seems unlikely to do so anytime soon, property owners could pay the fee in lieu of building the sidewalk. If a new sidewalk would require the removal of trees or if some other problem would make building a sidewalk too expensive, fees would be allowed.

Nor does the proposed price tag seem exorbitant. The city proposes charging $8 per square foot of forgone sidewalk, roughly its cost of sidewalk construction throughout Bend. In addition, homeowners would pay a $185 application fee to cover the cost of processing requests.

It’s a logical change. It gives the city the power to develop sidewalks in an orderly fashion, beginning where they’re needed most. It no doubt will save some property owners money. And, over time, it will make Bend a city in which all sidewalks actually have a purpose and a destination.