Lafayette, IN Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Lafayette Municipal Code § 8.01.300, "Removal of snow and ice from sidewalks," puts the clearing duty on "the owner or occupant of property adjacent to any sidewalk," not the city's Street Department, and gives them 12 daylight hours after the snow has stopped falling to get the walk clear. The clock runs on daylight hours rather than calendar hours, so an overnight or early-morning snowfall effectively buys more real time before the deadline than a storm that ends in mid-afternoon. The section sits in Chapter 8.01, General Provisions, alongside § 8.01.290, which separately requires business-area sidewalks to be swept clean of paper, dirt and refuse at least once every 24 hours and residential sidewalks at least once a month.

The Ordinance Violations Bureau's fine schedule in § 1.02.040 lists § 8.01.300 at a flat $50 civil penalty, the same rate charged for the sidewalk-cleanliness rule in § 8.01.290 and for related right-of-way obstruction violations in § 8.01.310. Lafayette police officers, the Street Commissioner and other officials authorized under § 1.02.020 can issue an ordinance violation ticket for an uncleared walk. Because the fine runs through the Ordinance Violations Bureau rather than the Chapter 7.06 traffic penalty schedule, it does not carry that chapter's 30- and 60-day escalation; it is written into the code as a flat $50 civil penalty for each violation, and a separate violation can be charged for each day the sidewalk remains uncleared past the 12-hour window.