After two years of talk, Denver city officials on Tuesday rolled out the major details of a sidewalk repair program that will crack down on crumbling walkways while offering loans and income-based assistance to homeowners.

The Department of Public Works, at the same time, is making plans for a separate program next year that will kick off a more concerted effort to fill in sidewalk gaps, which are estimated to exist along roughly 10 percent of city streets. It will do so largely by tapping into tens of millions of dollars earmarked for sidewalks in the city’s $937 million bond package approved by voters last month.

Despite those city-led efforts, the responsibility of maintaining sidewalks will continue to fall on property owners under city ordinance.

The difference is that, starting in the spring, the city will move away from a complaint-based system and ramp up organized inspections to hold their feet to the fire — starting in several central Denver neighborhoods, including Capitol Hill, Congress Park and Cherry Creek. Those are in the first of 11 inspection zones, and it could take a decade for inspectors to cover the rest.

“I’m super excited,” City Councilman Rafael Espinoza said, echoing several colleagues, during a briefing of a council committee Tuesday morning. “This can’t get big enough fast enough.”

In the $4 million repair assistance program, the city will allow options for fixes that are cheaper than a partial or full replacement, which it says can run $200 to $400 per concrete panel.

While some property owners could grumble at the city’s more aggressive approach, advocates for the disabled and for pedestrian access have pushed city officials to take on the problem.

Here is a closer look at the repair and gap-filling programs:

Neighborhood Sidewalk Repair Program

The basics: Denver Public Works will target inspections to one part of the city at a time over several years, which will result in repair notices delivered to property owners. The city will use $4 million set aside in its 2018 budget, plus administrative costs, to create an assistance program for lower-income homeowners and a revolving-loan fund available to most homeowners to spread out repair costs.

For now, a Public Works spokeswoman says, the assistance program won’t offer help with widening “Hollywood-style” and other attached sidewalks that have pavement as narrow as 3 feet. Those could be tagged for repairs, though.

Inspections: Public Works officials have divided Denver into 11 regions and in the spring will begin inspections in the first one. Region 1 contains the city-defined neighborhoods of North Capitol Hill (also called Uptown), Capitol Hill, Speer, Cheesman Park, Country Club, City Park (covering properties south of the park), Congress Park and Cherry Creek.

It’s unclear how long the inspection of all sidewalks across the city will take.

“This really is a brave new world,” Councilman Paul Kashmann said. “We may get through regions 1, 2 and 3 in the first year, or we may get halfway through Region 1. By the fall, we may be better equipped to look to the future.”

Assistance offered: Only homeowners will be eligible for financial help, though inspections also could result in repair notices to multifamily and commercial properties. There are two types:

The city will offer “affordability discounts” based on household income, starting at a 25 percent subsidy for families earning 80 percent to 100 percent of metro Denver’s area median income (ranging from $67,100 to $83,900 a year for a family of four under current guidelines). Lower-income households would be eligible for 50 percent and 75 percent discounts, with the city offering to pick up the entire cost of repairs for families earning less than 50 percent of area median income ($41,950 a year for a family of four).

Any household earning up to 150 percent of area median income ($125,850 a year for a family of four) could take advantage of a three-year loan for its share of the repair work, with a 1 percent annual interest rate. Repayment would begin a year after the work is complete.

Repair work: Property owners are free to hire contractors or do the repairs themselves, as long as the work meets guidelines, but there’s a catch: Homeowners who receive the assistance program must let the city or its contractor perform the work.

City workers likely will take on small-scale fixes, which could include simple patching, mud-jacking — injecting slurry beneath a panel to raise it — or grinding to level out slabs. Those repairs range from $30 to $100 per panel, public works officials say. But for partial or full replacements, the city will use a contractor.

In several neighborhoods, historic flagstone sidewalks are prevalent. For those, the city says it can replace damaged sections with colored concrete.

Citywide Sidewalk Gap Program

The basics: Denver Public Works is still working out which of the many sidewalk gaps it will fill first, but the bond package approved by voters will give a big boost to its effort by providing $47.7 million for sidewalks. Of that, $17 million will be devoted to Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, which have among the most pressing connectivity problems.

Another $4.5 million was budgeted in 2017 and 2018 for sidewalk initiatives, largely to build sidewalks along city property, including parks.

Priorities: A recently released draft of the Denver Moves: Pedestrians and Trails plan prioritizes potential sidewalk gap-filling projects across the city. But that plan estimates that solving the problem will cost more than $800 million.

Based on community input in that plan, the sidewalk gaps program first will target gaps along streets where pedestrians frequently are injured or killed by cars, near bus stops and transit stations, and on routes used to access parks, schools and grocery stores, said David Pulsipher, a senior city planner overseeing pedestrian plans.

A few neighborhoods proudly defend their lack of sidewalks, including in east Denver. Officials say they won’t have to add them.

What’s next: Public Works officials say they will continue construction of sidewalks on city property next year while identifying the first sidewalk gap to fill under the bond program.

Here is the Denver Public Works presentation to the City Council: