Everett, MA Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Section 17-6A of the Revised Ordinances of the City of Everett, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, applies only during a snow emergency called by the police chief or his designee. It covers all residences, businesses and other properties abutting a paved sidewalk, expressly including properties owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, city departments and agencies, houses of worship and nonprofit entities, and it applies to natural and unnatural accumulations of snow. The owner of land or of a building abutting a public way with an established sidewalk must make the sidewalk convenient for public use by removing accumulated snow.

Paragraph (d) sets the width: a minimum passage of 36 inches or approximately two-thirds of the sidewalk's width, whichever is less. Paragraph (e) sets the clock at 12 hours from the formal declaration that the snow emergency has ended or after the snowfall has ended, as applicable. The executive director of the department of public works or his agent can extend the limit after an unusually heavy snowfall or other exigent circumstances. All bus stops must be cleared within 24 hours. Section 17-6(a) separately requires a permit from the city services commission to place snow or ice from private premises in a public way.

Waivers exist for owners who occupy the premises as their primary residence. The application goes with supporting documentation to the office of assessing by the first day of November preceding the winter. A waiver is awarded if all owners receive the elderly exemption on their property taxes, or if all owners are physically incapable of complying, supported by a letter from a medical doctor, and their combined annual income does not exceed 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Multi-unit owners qualify if all owners of record occupy the premises as their primary residence. A waiver lasts 1 year, and the city must publish a notice each October through December in Spanish, Haitian-Creole and Portuguese.