Trenton, NJ Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Section 257-37 of the Trenton Code, in the Snow and Ice Removal article, requires the owner or owners, occupant or occupants, or tenant or tenants of premises abutting or bordering a City street to remove all snow and ice from the abutting sidewalk, or, where ice is so frozen that removal is impracticable, to thoroughly cover it with sand or ashes, within 12 daylight hours after the snow or ice falls or forms. That is a daylight-hours clock, not a calendar-day one, so a storm that ends overnight starts the 12-hour count when daylight resumes.

Section 257-38 then controls where the cleared snow goes: it is unlawful to shovel, plow or blow snow from the sidewalk into the abutting street, public alley, or beyond the curbline. Instead, snow removed from the sidewalk must be piled at the curbline on the sidewalk itself, leaving a safe, usable path for pedestrians to cross. Section 257-39 clarifies that the word 'owner' in this article does not reach the City of Trenton for property the City obtained through foreclosure, so a foreclosed lot awaiting disposition is not held to the same private-owner clearing duty.

This sits alongside the separate obstruction rule in § 257-34, which bars piling snow removed from private property onto a public sidewalk or street in a way that blocks pedestrian or vehicle passage.