(a) In addition to any authority which is now or may hereafter be granted by the General Statutes to the Town for making sidewalk improvements, the Town Council may order to be made or to make sidewalk improvements or repairs without petition according to standards and specifications of the Town, and to assess the total cost thereof against abutting property owners.
(b) If a sidewalk is constructed on only one side of a street, the cost thereof may be assessed against a property abutting on both sides of the street, unless there already exists a sidewalk, on the other side of the street, the total cost of which has been assessed against the abutting property.
(N.C.S.L. Ch. 2005-117, § 1(6.4))