Ridgefield, CT Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Section 310-20, part of Article IV, Snow and Ice Removal, puts the clearing duty on the tenant or occupant of a building or land fronting a sidewalk, and on the owner only if there is no tenant. The clock starts when snow, ice or sleet stops falling: the person responsible has eight hours to remove it, except that if the snow stops overnight the deadline becomes 12:00 noon the following day. Where the snow or ice cannot be wholly removed, the section requires sanding or sprinkling the walk with sand or another substance to make it safe for travel, rather than leaving it.

If the deadline passes, Section 310-21 lets the Board of Selectmen have the sidewalk cleared at the owner's expense, and Section 310-22 turns that cost into a lien on the property, recorded on the Town's land records ahead of every lien except a tax lien. Section 310-23, amended March 17, 2010, sets the penalty at not more than $100 for each and every hour after the required removal time that the snow, ice or sleet is not removed, a materially steeper clock than the flat per-day fines used elsewhere in the Code.

Section 310-25 separately shields the Town itself from slip-and-fall liability for ice or snow on a sidewalk it does not own or control, shifting that duty of care onto the abutting property owner, though a suit against that owner must be brought within two years of the injury.