Springfield, OR Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Springfield Municipal Code Section 5.124, in Chapter 5's Article II on public protection, places the sidewalk-clearing duty on whoever has control or custody of the abutting property, which the ordinance's wording extends beyond the titled owner to a lessee, occupant, or anyone managing an unimproved lot next to a public sidewalk. The clock starts when precipitation stops, not when it starts: the owner has two hours from the moment snow or ice has ceased to fall to clear it. The section builds in a nighttime carve-out for snow that keeps falling into the evening.

If snow is still falling or ice still accumulating after 6:00 p.m., the property owner does not have to clear it in the dark; instead the deadline becomes two hours after it stops or two hours after 7:00 a.m. the next day, whichever comes later, so an owner cannot be cited for ice that accumulated overnight before the two-hour morning window has run. Unlike several neighboring sections in Chapter 5 that print their own violation clause and fine, Section 5.124 does not state one, so a citation for uncleared sidewalks falls back on the city's general penalty schedule at SMC Section 1.205(3), which fixes the fine for any non-criminal Municipal Code violation not otherwise classified at up to $720, with no jail time authorized.

Section 1.205(5) also provides that a continuing violation constitutes a separate offense for each day it persists, so an owner who leaves ice on the walk for several days can face a fine tied to each day of noncompliance rather than a single flat penalty. Development and Public Works code enforcement, not the Springfield Police Department, is the city division that typically fields the complaint-driven sidewalk inspections that lead to a Section 5.124 citation.