On February 20, 2018, the City Council referred the following to Public Safety and Transportation, Public Facilities and Finance Committees:
#156‐18 Ordinance amendments for enforcement and fines for sidewalk clearing violations COUNCILORS DANBERG, ALBRIGHT, CROSSLEY, NORTON, AND LIPOF, requesting amendments to Chapter 17, Section 3 and Chapter 26 Section 8D of the Revised Ordinances to provide for enforcement and fines for violations of the sidewalk clearing ordinance.
Tonight, Wednesday, January 23, 2019, the PS&T has scheduled for discussion.
Chapter 26 Section 8D includes: Enforcement shall be limited to issuance of notices of non-compliance for violations of any provision of this section.
Chapter 17 Article 3 Civil Fines includes:
Sec. 26-8. Removal of snow and ice from sidewalks in certain districts.
First offense in calendar year – $100.00
Second offense in calendar year – $200.00
Third and subsequent offenses in calendar year – $300.00
Sec. 26-9. Putting snow and ice upon streets, sidewalks and bridges
First offense in calendar year – $100.00
Second offense in calendar year – $200.00
Third offense and subsequent offenses in calendar year – $300.00
Causing or permitting snow or ice to be placed upon a public way (street, sidewalk or bridge)
First offense in calendar year – $100.00
Second offense in calendar year – $200.00
Third offense and subsequent offenses in calendar year – $300.00
Current Ordinances
City Snow Ordinance
The City of Newton’s ordinances pertaining to snow and ice operations are intended to minimize safety hazards, reduce situations that impede operations associated with snow and ice control, and to provide for continued mobility for residents and visitors to traverse the City’s streets and sidewalks. Property owners are required by City ordinances to clear snow and ice from the walk and ADA curb cuts within 30 hours after a storm has ceased. Properties within identified business districts are required to clear snow and ice from the walk and ADA curb cuts within 24 hours. Depositing snow or ice on any public roadway or sidewalk is not permitted. View the City snow ordinances by visiting the following link. City Ordinances
Sidewalk Plowing Operations
The designated City sidewalk routes are divided into six separate routes distributed within the City snow zones. City staff performs snow and ice control on 54 plus miles of designated city sidewalk routes including 1,400 plus curb cuts contained within those routes. Private contractors may be used to supplement City forces. The City’s goal is to have the city maintained sidewalk routes cleared within 30 hours after the storm has ceased. Click here for city maintained sidewalk routes
Thoughts?
As long as public officials continue to abdicate their responsibility sidewalk snow clearing will remain a problem in Newton. The fact that they want to punish homeowners for the City’s failure speaks volumes about the lack of respect the City Council has for their constituents. Funding should be raised to sufficient levels and the City should plow more sidewalks.
As someone who walks to public transit for work, I’m very excited to see this. I am sick of busting my butt slipping on unshovelled sidewalks just trying to get to work. I’d like to see someone held accountable, because the DPW certainly isn’t. This system works very well in Cambridge and Somerville. This is an important step to creating more vibrancy in our walkable/transit oriented village centers.
I have mixed feelings about this, depending on how reasonable the enforcement is. For example, people on my stretch of my block tend to be good about clearing the sidewalk. However, this weekend’s weather left a swath of icy sidewalk (hopefully to be thawed and washed away by tomorrow night) – it was just too hard to keep up with everything before it all froze solid. In a situation like this, where even people who pay for snow clearing ended up with iced-over sidewalks, I would hope there could be some leniency.
And what would be the fine the City will pay when they fail to properly clear streets, storm drains and curb cuts?
Until the City takes responsibility for making streets safe, I feel no sense of responsibility to pay a fine to them for failing to keep their property in front of my home passable.
(For the record, I ALWAYS shovel my sidewalks….but you get what I’m saying)
You are part of the city, the sidewalk is your property too. Take pride in making your community a better place.
What would happen in my situation: I live on a corner lot which the snow plows use to pile up the snow from the street. We do snowblow/shovel our sidewalks, but the entire corner and a few feet on either side of the corner have a pretty giant mound of snow on them, which is impossible to shovel.
I don’t understand the distinction people are making between “city” and “homeowners”. We ARE the city; it is not some abstract entity that magically gets things done. If we want sidewalk snow removal done by city employees, then our taxes will have to pay for it. I’m wondering if a tax override specifically for this purpose would pass. Maybe it’s time to talk about that.
@ Newtoner – Based on the city snow removal maps some sidewalks are designated as to be cleared by the town. If those are not cleared who’s responsible? No need to increase taxes to get done what the town has most likely contracted and is paying to have done.
What I am in favor of the city doing is having someone accountable for monitoring the removal and fining contractors who don’t do the work the city has hired them to do.
There are a lot of homeowners that consistently make no effort to clear their sidewalk and they should be fined, I don’t think anything else will get through to them. Clearly they have no problem watching children and the elderly walking in the street.
Municipal government has been trying to shift snow clearing responsibility to homeowners for many years. Ask yourself this… How’s it working?
If it were working well, would there be a need to increase fines?
The truth of the matter is that our sidewalks are always a problem after almost every storm. As long as the City Council gets to point the finger at homeowners as the cause of the problem, the problem will not be fixed. It’s time for the homeowners to point a different finger back at the City Council and tell them to get the damn sidewalks cleared.
@Yuppie Scum,
I do take pride in keeping the city owned sidewalk in front of my home clear. You suggest we “own” the property and I suggest the City “own” it’s responsibility to keep it’s property clear and safe.
The City has no right to fine anyone for failing to clear it’s property when it can’t do the same.
Mighty as the Newton City Council may be, it isn’t powerful enough to suspend the laws of physics. A nice Currier and Ives snowfall is one thing. The meteorological monstrosity that hit us over the weekend is something else again, especially for those of us with north-facing properties that get no help whatsoever from the sun. My husband and I have brought our contractor back three times since Saturday. We’ve attacked with snow shovels and gallons of ice melt. Our sidewalk is still impassable thanks to the wall of frozen-solid slush dumped by street plows, which projects thickly out into the street, completely covering the storm drain. Any City Councilor who supports fining residents who try their best against a mess like this but can’t beat Mother Nature will never again get any support from me.
For the record, I spent a lot of time between Sunday and today clearing, scraping and salting the sidewalk in front of my house. I have no inherent problem with the ordinance. However, the city would have more credibility on enforcing said ordinance if it (and its contractors) were more diligent in their own removal efforts, which were ultimately lacking in this storm.
Say we do our civic duty and meticulously clear the snow from our property and the city’s. It is invariably the case that the ever-considerate drivers of the city’s plows manage with probability one to obviate all of our work. Now, I would no more throw snow on my neighbor’s property than s/he would on mine. So, if they are “our” sidewalks then they are “our” plows and care should be taken to respect the work and effort expended by the citizens of this fair municipality. That this is manifestly not the case is simultaneously a pretty clear marker of the hypocrisy of the sanctimonious many on this forum and the uselessness of the ordinances. Surely the braintrust that is the body-formerly-known-as-the-Board-of-Aldermen will devise a fair and workable solution.
Marti, were you at the meeting, sitting in the corner? I was sitting next to you and wished I could have acknowledged your interesting contributions to this blog over the years.
Once again, I was struck with the care and thoughtfulness with which the Councillors debated the use of fines for non-shoveled sidewalks: How much? when? Which owner?
The fact that this is a complaint-driven system has pros and cons: what if your neighbor does not like you and complains about your part of the sidewalk? What if nobody complains because in fact everybody walks in the quiet street?
The DPW keeps a record of the number of complaints and have data on whether their interventions (door handle sign) have been effective. Maybe the police can learn and be more effective in handling leaf-blower violations!
Isabelle, what a nice thing to say. Thank you. Yes, I was at the meeting. Just say hello next time.
I did not know it was you! Only figured it out from that new topic you posted.