I live in Phoenix; in my neighborhood it's basically the same way. City comes around, tears up the sidewalk to fix something (water main or such) - and you the homeowner are responsible for fixing the sidewalk. Yay.
About all the city will do is put some asphalt over the bare dirt, but if you want the sidewalk to be concrete, you have to pay for that work.
Since a lot of the properties in my neighborhood are rentals, you can guess how often such asphalt patches are properly "fixed". Usually, you have to put in a blight notice to the city to have them contact the actual homeowner to get them to actually fix it properly.
One of the downsides living where I do. But then again, I live "below my means" (as an SWE), and I don't have an HOA, and block construction, and I can work on my cars when I want, where I want, how I want. If that means an angle grinder and welder come out at 8pm, so be it. Neighbors can't complain until after 10pm or so, and only then for excessive noise.
Take the good with the bad...
What in the holy hell? That's insane and ridiculous. Is this for both residential and commercial? (I could understand the latter slightly more.)
Sounds like a great way to piss off your citizens by cutting a very small corner in what is probably already an expensive endeavor.