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The Los Angeles City Council threw its support Tuesday behind a plan to fix broken and buckled sidewalks across the city, then gradually hand off responsibility for future repairs to property owners -- a idea known as “fix and release.”

City attorneys are now supposed to draft a new ordinance that would put the plan in motion, including rolling back a decades-old rule that put the city on the hook for sidewalks ruptured by street trees.

Los Angeles leaders have blamed that long-standing rule for its broken walkways. State law says that the adjacent property owner is responsible for sidewalk repairs, but L.A. took on responsibility for those damaged by street trees decades ago -- then failed to keep up with the needed repairs.

“This is a problem that has been 40 years in the making,” City Councilman Paul Krekorian said Tuesday, complaining that city lawmakers in the past had made “a very shortsighted decision” to snag some federal funding that quickly evaporated.

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