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

Section 90-51 of the Village of Skokie Code combines two separate rules under one heading, Snow Removal and Disposal. The first rule is a dumping ban that reaches every property in the Village, not just business districts: it is unlawful for any person to throw, dump or deposit an accumulation of snow or ice upon any public way, so shoveling a driveway's snow out into the street or onto a neighbor's stretch of public sidewalk is itself a violation, separate from any failure to clear one's own walk.

The second rule imposes an affirmative clearing duty, but only on persons in control of property located in a business zoned district that fronts or abuts a paved sidewalk. Those business property owners and occupants must remove snow and ice from the sidewalk sections abutting their property within 24 hours after a snowfall or freezing precipitation event. Where the accumulated snow or ice has frozen too hard to remove within that window, Section 90-51 gives an alternative: covering it with an abrasive material satisfies the duty in place of physical removal.

The section does not extend the 24-hour clearing mandate to residential property; its clearing duty is expressly limited to property in a business zoned district, so a homeowner's obligations regarding sidewalk ice, if any, arise elsewhere in the Code rather than under this section.