West Valley City, UT Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Chapter 19-3, Obstructions, opens by prohibiting any encroachment, obstruction, or placement of items on a Highway, Sidewalk, Parkstrip, curb, gutter, or Right-of-Way that is not covered by a Right-of-Way permit or otherwise expressly allowed. Subsection (7) then singles out snow removal: the owner, occupant, lessor, or agent of any property abutting a paved sidewalk must remove hail, snow, or sleet from that sidewalk within 24 hours after it stops falling. The same section separately bans pushing, throwing, blowing, or plowing snow, hail, or sleet onto a street (subsection 5), and bans letting tree limbs hang lower than seven feet over a sidewalk or 14 feet over a roadway (subsection 6), so a resident clearing a walk cannot legally shovel it into the street.

Section 19-1-101 defines "Sidewalk" as the hard-surfaced pedestrian area alongside a Highway, which may sit inside the Highway right-of-way or in an easement on the abutting property, and defines "Department" as the West Valley City Public Works Department, the agency with jurisdiction here. Section 19-3-102 gives that Department full authority to remove or cause removal of any Section 19-3-101 obstruction, including unshoveled snow, with no prior notice to the property owner, and the City is not liable for any damage to or destruction of property removed in the process.

Section 19-1-105(5) separately classifies violations of Title 19, including the snow-clearing duty, as infractions rather than misdemeanors, except that failing to comply with a Department stop-work order is a class B misdemeanor. Chapter 19-3 was last repealed and replaced by Ordinance No. 20-33 on August 25, 2020.