Royal Oak Township, MI Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Section 24-77, in Chapter 24, Article III, Division 2, declares that the accumulation of snow and ice on paved sidewalks is a threat to the health, safety and welfare of the public and is a nuisance. The duty falls on every owner and every person in charge or control of any building, lot or piece of land fronting or abutting on a paved sidewalk, whether as owner, tenant, occupant, lessee or otherwise. Each of them must clear the stretch of sidewalk in front of or abutting the property, and the deadline is 24 hours after the cessation of any fall of snow, sleet or freezing rain.

Subsection (c) handles ice that cannot be removed without likelihood of damage to the sidewalk. Within the same 24 hours, the responsible person must put down enough sand or an agent designed to melt the ice without damage to the sidewalk to make travel reasonably safe, and must then have the sidewalk thoroughly cleaned as soon as weather permits.

Section 24-78 controls where the snow goes. No person shall deposit snow or ice on or against a fire hydrant or on any sidewalk, roadway, or loading and unloading area of a public transportation system. Snow and ice can be windrowed on public roadways incident to cleaning them, or on curbs where buildings or structures sit so close to the sidewalk that there is not enough space on the land fronting the sidewalk.

When the deadline passes, § 24-79 gives the township the right to remove or treat the snow and ice forthwith, or have it done. All costs become a lien on the property fronting or abutting the sidewalk and are recovered by special assessment proceeding commenced in April of each year. The computation can include a reasonable allocation for indirect costs such as administration overhead, and it includes a penalty of ten percent of the total costs. The township's cleanup does not affect its right to prosecute under § 24-77.

Anyone who clears sidewalks for hire, gain or reward with the motor-driven equipment described in § 24-108 needs an annual permit from the township clerk (§ 24-109), and § 24-115 says those provisions do not abrogate the occupant's own duty to remove snow or ice from the contiguous sidewalk.