Farmington Hills, MI Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Farmington Hills' approach to sidewalk snow and ice differs from the typical Michigan municipal rule. (1) City sidewalk plowing — The City of Farmington Hills does not plow or salt sidewalks. The Road Maintenance page (fhgov.com/roadmaintenance) states: 'The City does not plow or salt sidewalks.' The City's rationale: 'Given the frequency of thaws in Southeastern Michigan, pedestrians can safely use sidewalks throughout most of the winter,' and sidewalk-snow-removal programs in other communities have 'resulted in extensive landscape damages and, on occasion, caused increased hazards due to icy sidewalk surface conditions.' (2) Owner snow-shoveling duty — The City has not published a stand-alone sidewalk-snow ordinance that sets a strict hours-after-snowfall deadline for residents to shovel. The relevant general-duty rule is Code Sec. 26-82 (Maintenance) in Chapter 26 (Streets, Sidewalks and Other Public Places), Article IV (Sidewalks): 'No person shall permit any sidewalk which adjoins property owned by such person to fall into a state of disrepair or to be unsafe.' Persistent untreated ice or hard-packed snow that creates an unsafe walking surface can be cited under this section, but the section does not impose a 24- or 48-hour rule. (3) Street snow removal — The City's Department of Public Works (248-871-2850) is responsible for plowing City streets; primary roads are plowed first, then secondary roads, then subdivision streets. The street-snow rule under Chapter 26 prohibits depositing shoveled snow back into the street. (4) MCL 257.677a (Michigan Vehicle Code) prohibits residents from shoveling snow from their sidewalks, cars, or property into the public roadway anywhere in Michigan. (5) Premises liability — Even without a strict shovel ordinance, Michigan's premises-liability rules under Kandil-Elsayed v. F & E Oil, Inc. (Mich. 2023) (which abolished the open-and-obvious doctrine as a complete bar and shifted to a comparative-fault analysis) make property owners and tenants potentially liable for slip-and-fall injuries on sidewalks they fail to maintain, regardless of any local ordinance deadline. (6) HOAs and condo associations often impose private shoveling deadlines under their CC&Rs that the City does not enforce.