Southfield, MI Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Southfield City Code § 4.75 places the snow-clearing duty on the occupant of every lot or premises adjoining a street; if the property is not occupied, the duty falls to the owner instead. The section requires that person to clear, and keep cleared, all sidewalks adjoining the lot of snow, ice, filth and other obstructions, not just after the first shovel-out. Section 4.76 sets the deadline and the consequence: once ice, snow, filth or another obstruction has been left uncleared for twenty-four consecutive hours or more, the occupant or owner is guilty of a violation of chapter 34 of the Code.

Beyond citing the responsible party, the director is authorized to step in and have the sidewalk cleared directly, and the expense of that clearing becomes a debt owed to the city by the occupant or owner. That debt is not simply invoiced: the Code directs that it be collected as a single lot assessment in accordance with section 1.13 of the Code, the same collection mechanism the city uses to recover the cost of building sidewalks owners failed to construct and of repairing sidewalks owners failed to fix under chapter 34's companion provisions.

A cross-reference in article I of the same chapter flags that depositing ice or snow onto a sidewalk is independently addressed under section 2.11 of the Code. Because the ordinance defines "director" for this chapter as the director of public service, that office is the one that orders the make-up clearing and initiates cost recovery once the twenty-four-hour clock runs out on an occupant or owner who never shoveled.