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

Tigard Municipal Code § 6.02.320 puts the sidewalk burden on the property owner, not on the City of Tigard. Every person owning property that has a public sidewalk abutting it, or a public pedestrian easement over it, must maintain and keep in repair the sidewalk or pathway and must not permit it to become or remain in a dangerous or unsafe condition. The section states that maintenance includes, but is not limited to, the removal of snow and ice.

The code prints no deadline in hours or days after a storm. The only timing word is in the liability sentence: an owner who neglects to promptly comply is fully liable to any person injured by that negligence. That makes the owner, not the City Council or Public Works, the target of a slip-and-fall claim. In the other direction, the City of Tigard exempts itself from all liability, including common-law liability, that it might otherwise incur as a result of its own negligent failure to maintain and repair public sidewalks or pedestrian easements.

The same duty appears a second time in Title 15 at § 15.12.010, which addresses owners of lots or land with abutting public sidewalks and also names snow and ice removal as part of maintenance. Two neighboring sections in Title 6 fill in the picture. Section 6.02.310 requires a responsible party to keep an abutting public street or sidewalk, or a public pedestrian easement over the property, free from earth, rock and other debris and other objects that obstruct it or make it unsafe for its intended use. Section 6.02.330 makes sidewalk, curb and planter strip maintenance the continuing obligation of the adjacent owner, and makes upkeep of a public pedestrian easement the continuing responsibility of the underlying property owner.

Enforcement belongs to the City's code enforcement officer under Chapter 1.16, and Title 6 is processed as a civil infraction, not a criminal citation.