The City of Calgary has decided to be more strict when it comes to homeowners not clearing their sidewalks. According to The City of Calgary Snow Bylaw, here are a few things for you to know so that you don’t get hit by fines.
Avoid nasty fines for failing to clear snow and ice from your property. This affects both residential homeowners and commercial property owners. The City is ramping up enforcement to ensure property owners follow the rules and keep sidewalks free of slip and fall hazards.
Although the City of Calgary has existing by-laws, they are increasing the fines. Fines start at $250 for the first offence, double to $500 for the second, and $750 for the third offence. In addition to the fine, you will be billed for the clearing of the sidewalk to City standards. This clearing cost ranges between $150 and $250. Don’t let a fine make you frosty, here are some guideline to follow when clearing snow from your property.
Snow Bylaw Guidelines
- Snow needs to be cleared within 24 hours of the end of a snow event. If it snows for multiple days, you can wait until the end, but it’s always easier to shovel multiple times during prolonged snow.
- A good clearing of your city sidewalk needs to be edge-to-edge for the full length and snow cleared down to the concrete.
- Knowing what to clear is just as important as knowing how to clear it. All City of Calgary sidewalks that border your property must be completely cleared, but did you know that if you have a pathway bordering your house it has to be cleared too? Thankfully when it comes to pathways you don’t have to clear the entire width of it, they need to be cleared at least 1.5 meters wide along the length of it. This picture should help illustrate what they mean by pathway, as they are almost always asphalt as opposed to the concrete that most city sidewalks are.
- The final part of the bylaw is where can you put the snow that you are clearing? This is a pretty simple point, any snow that you clear from your own property, must go onto your own property like your lawn or a side of the driveway you don’t use. Any snow that is removed from city sidewalks or pathways can then be put onto public property like the road. However, it’s important to be careful piling snow on the road as you can also get fines for making large piles on the road, or blocking a neighbours driveway.
Hopefully, with this quick breakdown of the snow bylaws, you won’t have any frustrations dealing with potential fines by the City of Calgary as they ramp up enforcement in 2019.
Avoid Snow Bylaw Fines
Prestige Pop-up Sprinklers has full-time snow crews that can eliminate the hassle, frustration, sweat, tears, and the wasted time spent clearing snow. We provide monthly contracts without clearing limits as well as holiday coverage. It is safe to say that our services are far more rewarding and less stressful than a fine. We handle both residential and commercial snow clearing and would love to give you a quote.
