Bloomfield, NJ Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Section 497-8 of the Bloomfield Township Code puts the sidewalk duty on the owner or tenant of lands abutting or bordering upon public sidewalks of the Township, and it covers the sidewalk in front of or bordering on those lands. The clock is 12 hours of daylight, counted from the moment the snow falls or the ice forms. Tenants carry the same duty as owners, so a lease does not move the obligation away from the person occupying the frontage.

The Township Council also closed a common shortcut. The same section bars the owner or tenant of land along a public street from shoveling, moving or transporting snow or ice from driveways or sidewalks and depositing it onto the street. Pushing a driveway pile into the roadway is its own violation, separate from leaving the walk uncleared.

Vehicles have a rule of their own in subsection C. Drivers who park on any public street in Bloomfield Township must remove all snow and ice from the vehicle and its parking space within 48 hours of daylight, and that snow and ice cannot be moved to another location on a public street or a public sidewalk.

Apartment complexes carry a wider duty under § 497-10. The owner of a garden apartment or high-rise apartment must clear the sidewalks, roadways (accepted public roadways of the town excepted), parking areas, walks from the sidewalks to the entrances, walks and stairways to basements, storage areas and refuse storage areas, again within 12 hours of daylight.

Two neighboring duties sit in the same chapter. Under § 497-4, owners or occupants of stores and other places of business must keep the sidewalks and gutters in front of the premises clean and orderly. Under § 497-9, owners and tenants have three days after notification by the Township to remove grass, weeds and impediments from the right-of-way between the curb and the sidewalk.