Peoria, IL Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Section 26-251 puts the snow-clearing duty on commercial property, not residential homeowners: the code defines commercial property as real estate used for retail or wholesale trade, hotels, restaurants, offices, clinics, warehouses, light manufacturing and similar uses, and it separately sweeps in all public and private schools, hospitals and churches regardless of how those parcels would otherwise be classified. CityLink, the city's transit agency, has its own obligation to clear a ten-foot radius around bus shelters and benches on marked primary snow routes. The clock starts at the end of the snowfall: owners get 24 hours to clear accumulations under six inches and 36 hours for six inches or more, using National Weather Service measurements, and each new snow event resets the deadline rather than stacking on top of the last one.

The cleared path must be at least four feet wide so wheelchairs, strollers and adults walking with children can pass. 00 for anything longer. 00 fine, regardless of whether the underlying clearing deadline was met. Section 26-252 carves out three exceptions: accessible ramps at intersections on marked primary snow routes adjacent to commercial property, schools, hospitals or churches remain the city's responsibility rather than the abutting owner's; snow deposited on a sidewalk by government snowplow operations, such as when a narrow curbline lane leaves plows nowhere else to push snow, does not count against the owner; and new sidewalk construction must match the width of adjoining sidewalks under Section 26-250's minimums. Section 26-253 states that enforcement of this snow-removal scheme is complaint-driven rather than proactively patrolled.