Wauwatosa, WI Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

010 puts the duty on the owner, occupant, or person in charge of any building or lot fronting a street to clear all snow and ice from the abutting public sidewalk and adjoining crosswalk within twenty-four hours after the snow stops falling or the ice stops accumulating; crosswalks must be cleared to the plowed area of the street. If ice cannot be removed, the property must instead be kept sprinkled with calcium chloride, sodium chloride, another deicing material, or sand. When a storm keeps snowing for more than twenty-four hours, the clock resets: removal must happen immediately once the snowfall actually ends.

An Ord. O-22-8 amendment effective February 1, 2022 extends the duty to any property abutting a multiuse path, requiring the full path width to be cleared, except that residential properties with four or fewer units only need to clear a path of five feet or more along the abutting multiuse path. 040. 050 lets the city's board of public works remove uncleared snow, ice, mud, dirt, or rubbish without first sending the owner written notice, then bills the removal cost to the occupant or owner; an unpaid bill becomes a special tax assessed against the property under Wis. 0907(5). 070 bars piling snow or ice around a fire hydrant so as to obstruct it.