Downtown Webster City property owners doing sidewalk repairs would have to restore any affected brickwork under a measure advanced by the City Council on Monday.

Decorative brickwork was added to the sidewalks in 2000 as part of a major downtown infrastructure project.

Land owners in the city are required to maintain the sidewalks in front of their property. The measure before the council would ensure that property owners downtown replace the bricks as well as the concrete when doing repairs.

The measure states ”In the downtown district, sidewalks shall be finished back to their pre-repaired or replaced design including, but not limited to, replacing or repairing bricks to the previous design matching adjacent property owners.”

”It sounds like it’s needed,” Councilman Logan Welch said.

He said without the new rule, the city could end up with a ”mosaic” of repaired downtown sidewalks.

Councilman Matt McKinney said he believes the measure is needed to keep downtown sidewalks consistent.

The council unanimously approved the first reading of the measure. It must be approved two more times to become law.

In another downtown related move, the council approved the second reading of the ordinance reauthorizing the self-supported municipal improvement district. The district is a downtown area in which land owners pay an additional property tax to finance improvements within the district.

That ordinance must be approved once more to become law.