Queen Anne's County, MD Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Part 5 of Chapter 23 of the Queen Anne's County Code puts snow removal on the owner next to the sidewalk. Section 23-66.2 sorts sidewalks into three categories, and each category repeats the duty. For sidewalks built in existing neighborhoods as part of urban highway reconstruction with the Maryland State Highway Administration or other County-initiated projects, § 23-66.3A makes abutting property owners responsible for sidewalk surface maintenance, including, but not limited to, removal of leaves, weeds, and snow. For sidewalks built in a new subdivision by a developer, § 23-66.4B gives owners of abutting property the same duty, and § 23-66.4F requires the owner's responsibility to be printed on the approved subdivision plat and/or community covenants.

For sidewalks added to an existing neighborhood or property by the owners themselves, § 23-66.5C again assigns surface maintenance, including removal of leaves, weeds, and snow, to abutting owners. The article applies only to the unincorporated areas of Queen Anne's County (§ 23-66.1C), which covers Kent Island but not Centreville, Queenstown or the other towns. The article sets no hour or day by which snow must be cleared. The time period it does print is procedural: an owner who has been given proper notice of a violation has a thirty-day period to remedy it before being served with a civil infraction (§ 23-66.6B).

The County must establish a schedule of fines for an abutting owner's failure to maintain a sidewalk, and all such violations are civil infractions (§ 23-66.6A). Sidewalks also cannot be blocked by vehicles or other obstructions or used as a depository for materials, waste receptacles or other objects, so shoveled snow piled on the walk is an obstruction problem as well.