Bethlehem, PA Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

03 states that no person owning, controlling or occupying any lot adjoining or fronting upon a City street, sidewalk, lane, alley, pavement, footway or right-of-way shall allow mud, sand, gravel, leaves, snow, ice or rubbish to remain on the pavement in front of or adjoining that lot for longer than twenty-four hours after the rain, snow, sleet or hail causing it has ceased to fall, or after it has otherwise been deposited. 99. The Article also reaches property owners and lot operators who plow snow the wrong direction: anyone owning, controlling or plowing an off-street parking lot, sidewalk or other property adjoining a City street who pushes snow, mud, sand, gravel, leaves or rubbish into the street, sidewalk or right-of-way, or repositions it from a parking lane into a traffic lane and obstructs vehicle flow, is likewise guilty of maintaining a nuisance under the same section.

The rule was adopted by Ordinance 2463 in 1975 and amended by Ordinance 3731 in 1996, and it sits in the same Article that separately regulates sidewalk obstructions, snow-emergency routes and street-improvement work, so the City treats an un-shoveled sidewalk the same way it treats an unlawful obstruction: as a right-of-way nuisance the abutting property is responsible for clearing.