Bethlehem Codified Ordinance Β§721.03 (Article 721 - Streets and Sidewalks) requires every person owning, controlling, or occupying any lot adjoining or fronting upon a street in the City to remove snow and ice from the sidewalk within 24 hours after the rain, snow, sleet, or hail has ceased to fall. The City's official Snow Plowing/Removal FAQ from the Department of Public Works clarifies that compliance is satisfied if a cleared portion at least 3 feet wide has been made on the sidewalk. The handicap-ramp at the corner is the abutting owner's responsibility. Shoveling or plowing snow into the street or right-of-way is a separate nuisance violation under the same section.
Bethlehem's sidewalk snow-clearing duty is codified at Β§721.03 of the Codified Ordinances (Article 721 - Streets and Sidewalks). The local section reads, in substance, that no person owning, controlling or occupying any lot adjoining or fronting upon any of the streets, sidewalks, lanes, alleys, pavements, footways or rights-of-way in the City shall allow or permit any mud, sand, gravel, leaves, snow, ice or rubbish of any sort or description to be or remain upon the pavements, sidewalks, footways or rights-of-way in front of or adjoining such lot for a period longer than twenty-four hours after the rain, snow, sleet or hail which is the cause thereof has ceased to fall. The Department of Public Works' Snow Plowing/Removal FAQ supplies the operational compliance standard: it shall be considered compliance if a cleared portion three (3) feet in width has been made upon such sidewalk or footpath. Questions about un-shoveled sidewalks are directed to the Engineering Bureau at 610-865-7063. The duty extends to the corner handicap (ADA) ramp: the FAQ confirms 'the abutting property owner is responsible to clean the handicapped ramp to make safe passage to the roadway pavement.' Section Β§721.03 also imposes a parallel duty in the opposite direction: any person owning, controlling and/or plowing an off-street parking lot area, sidewalk, or other property who plows or causes to place snow into the street, sidewalk, alley, pavement, footway, or right-of-way - or repositions such materials from the parking lane to the traffic lane causing an obstruction - is guilty of maintaining a nuisance. Police will issue citations for this behavior (per the DPW FAQ).
Failure to clear within 24 hours after precipitation ceases is a violation of Β§721.03, and the property owner 'shall be guilty of maintaining a nuisance.' Penalties under Β§721.99 are a fine of not more than three hundred dollars ($300.00) for each separate violation, together with costs, or imprisonment of not more than ninety days if the fine and costs are not paid (Ord. 1758 passed 11/13/1962, last amended by Ord. 2009-39 passed 12/22/2009). The duty is non-delegable in the practical sense - leases may shift the work to a tenant, but the City may cite the owner. Plowing snow from a private driveway or off-street parking lot into the street is a separate Β§721.03 nuisance violation, ticketable by Bethlehem Police, and the abutting owner remains civilly liable to pedestrians injured on an uncleared sidewalk under Pennsylvania premises-liability law where the City has shifted the duty to the abutting owner by ordinance.
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