Pasco, WA Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)
Key Facts
- Responsible party
- Abutting private property owner
- Covers
- Snow, ice, litter, and debris
- Trigger for liability
- Failure to act after City notice
- Maximum penalty
- $250.00 civil code infraction
- Governing section
- PMC 12.04.140
Summary
Pasco puts the job of clearing snow, ice, litter, and debris off an abutting sidewalk on the private property owner next door, not the City. PMC 12.04.140 makes ignoring a City cleanup notice unlawful, with a civil code infraction that carries up to a $250.00 penalty.
Whenever any street, lane, square, place or alley in the City shall have been improved by the construction of a sidewalk along either side thereof, the duty, burden, and expense of the maintenance and cleaning (including the cleaning of snow and ice, litter and other debris), of such sidewalk shall devolve upon the owner of the private property directly abutting on the sidewalk. ... It shall be unlawful for any person after receiving notice from the City to fail to maintain, clean, repair, or replace such sidewalk pursuant to the obligations created above. A violation of this section shall be a civil code infraction carrying a maximum penalty of $250.00.
Official source re-checked September 8, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: current through Ordinance 4837, passed May 4, 2026).
Full Breakdown
140, Maintenance of sidewalks, places the 'duty, burden, and expense of the maintenance and cleaning (including the cleaning of snow and ice, litter and other debris)' of any sidewalk on 'the owner of the private property directly abutting on the sidewalk,' anywhere in the City a sidewalk has been built along a street, lane, square, place, or alley. ' In practice, that means the City can put an owner on notice for an icy or snow-covered walk, and continued noncompliance after that notice is what triggers liability.
00. The same section separately empowers the City to order repair or replacement, at the owner's cost, when 'persuasive evidence' shows the owner's own actions damaged the sidewalk. 060 lets the City build a required sidewalk itself and assess the cost to the property if an owner never complies.
Violations & Fines
Failing to clear snow, ice, litter, or debris from an abutting sidewalk after receiving a City notice is a civil code infraction under PMC 12.04.140, carrying a maximum penalty of $250.00. The City may also order repair or replacement of a sidewalk damaged by the owner's own actions, or, under PMC 12.08.060, build a required sidewalk itself and assess the full cost against the property.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who has to shovel snow off the sidewalk in Pasco?
Is there a deadline to clear sidewalk snow in Pasco?
What is the fine for not clearing a Pasco sidewalk?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Pasco
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