Benton County, WA Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

20 of the Benton County Code, first adopted as Ord. 28 in 1951, is a narrow, geographically limited rule. 010 restricts the whole chapter to unincorporated areas of the county with a population density in excess of 4,500 people per square mile, meaning it reaches only the denser unincorporated pockets near the Tri-Cities, not the county's open rural land. 020 requires any person, firm or corporation occupying premises on a street where sidewalks are laid to clear the portion of sidewalk abutting their premises of ice and snow within eighteen hours after a snowfall stops; the duty runs to the occupant of the abutting property, not the county's road crews.

030 backs the deadline with a criminal penalty: any person, firm or corporation violating any provision of the chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction, can be fined up to $1,000. The chapter was last amended by Ord. 214 in 1987, which updated both the clearing duty and the violations-penalties section to their current wording. Because the density threshold excludes most of unincorporated Benton County's territory, the practical reach of this duty is limited to a handful of built-up unincorporated neighborhoods; incorporated cities such as Kennewick, Richland, West Richland and Prosser separately regulate sidewalk snow clearing under their own municipal codes.