Denver requires property owners to clear their walkways so that everyone has safe access throughout the City. Senior citizens, people with disabilities, parents with strollers, and mail carriers depend on clear walkways.
- Homeowners: Once snow has stopped falling, residences have twenty-four (24) hours to remove snow and ice from public sidewalks adjacent to their property.
- Businesses: Once snow has stopped falling, businesses have four (4) hours to remove snow and ice from public sidewalks adjacent to their property.
- Report A Problem: Please contact Denver 3-1-1 to provide the address of unshoveled sidewalks.
- Enforcement: Denver performs proactive inspections in business districts, and we rely on citizen complaints to help us identify those property owners who need to be educated about sidewalk safety requirements.
The vast majority of people comply with the first sidewalk safety notice issued by the City. In the rare instances where a property owner refuses to comply, Denver takes escalating legal action, which can include issuing an Administrative Citation that carries a $150 penalty. Denver manages 3,000 sidewalk safety cases a year.
Snow from plowing
While pushing snow onto sidewalks by our plows doesn’t happen very often, we are truly sorry when it does. We all know how critical it is that our streets are cleared of snow for safety and accessibility purposes, and that is the top priority of Denver’s heavy snow plows. Pushing snow onto sidewalks and driveways is an unfortunate consequence of plowing any street. We don’t have a policy addressing plows pushing snow onto sidewalks because it wouldn’t be realistic to expect that of our operators. We do, however, expect them to be conscientious in their work while recognizing their goal of clearing the street of snow.
Please know that we are constantly providing our drivers with feedback on their performance and ways to minimize the occurrence of snow on sidewalks.