Every deadline, width and penalty here was read on September 23, 2026, off the city's own page or the municipal code that city hosts, and each one is quoted and linked beside the line it supports. Cities amend these ordinances between winters and several publish the deadline on a seasonal page that changes in autumn, so the link beside a line is what governs on the day.

Kansas Sidewalk Snow Removal: 12 to 48 Hours

Q: Does snow have to be cleared from the sidewalk or the street in Kansas?

The rules collected here are sidewalk rules, and the great majority of Kansas cities publish a second one about where the snow may go once it has been moved, most often forbidding it on the travelled part of the road. Both come off the same city pages linked below, and the Kansas cities that publish only the second are listed as such rather than folded in with the rest.

Q: Which cities in the country give you the least time?

St. Louis, Santa Fe, Sheridan, where the ordinance allows no hours at all. Above them, 57 of the 150 cities that count in hours give twelve hours or less, 74 give exactly a day, and 18 give more than a day. The widest gap inside a single state is Maine, from four hours to three days.

Nothing

What state law sets

37 states are in the same position

12 to 48h

The range across its cities

[object Object] is the tightest

6 of 6

Cities with an ordinance

3 clear it themselves and bill

September 23, 2026

Read

2 publish a penalty

The short answer

Kansas runs from twelve hours in Salina to two days in Shawnee

Kansas has no sidewalk clearing statute at all. The clock is a city's instead, and five Kansas cities count in hours. The tightest is Salina at twelve hours and the loosest Shawnee at two days, a gap of 36 hours inside one state. Nationally the deadlines run from no hours at all to three days across 150 cities, and no state legislature anywhere has put a number on it.

The city named on each line below is the one that publishes the rule and the one that answers questions about it. 53 cities nationally also publish a page for reporting a walk that has not been cleared.

Nothing at state level6 of 6 cities with an ordinance5 counting in hours3 clear it themselves

City by city, in each city’s own words

The 6 Kansas cities that publish an ordinance

Five Kansas cities publish a count of hours, and each one below is quoted from the ordinance or the city page it was read from. The middle of the Kansas figures is 36 hours, against a day nationally.

Each card below carries what that city published and nothing else: the deadline in its own sentence, the sentence it was read from, and the width, the penalty and the wording about ice where the city printed them. The chip is a band derived from the wording for sorting, not a restatement of it.

Salina
7h to 12h
within twelve (12) hours after such snow has fallen or ice has accumulated
It is hereby made the duty of the owner, occupant or person in charge of any lot or piece of land abutting on any sidewalk to remove all snow and ice fallen or accumulated upon the sidewalk within twelve (12) hours after such snow has fallen or ice has accumulated.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the owner, occupant or person in charge of any lot or piece of land abutting on any sidewalk
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section Sec. 35-252
- Published by City of Salina
Sec. 35-252 Duty to remove, Salina Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Prairie Village
13h to 24h
within 24 hours from the time that the snow or ice storm ends, or within 24 hours after sunrise where it fell in the nighttime
It shall be unlawful for the owner and/or occupant of any property abutting one or more public sidewalks to fail to cause to be removed from such sidewalks all snow and ice within 24 hours from the time that the snow or ice storm ends. If the snow falls or ice accumulates upon the sidewalks in the nighttime, removal of it must be within 24 hours after sunrise.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the owner and/or occupant of any property abutting one or more public sidewalks
What it says about ice
Where there shall be ice or compacted snow on any such sidewalk of such a character as to make it practically impossible to remove the same, the sprinkling of sand or non-corrosive chemicals on the accumulation of ice or snow in such a manner as to make such sidewalk reasonably safe for pedestrian travel shall be deemed sufficient compliance with provisions of this article until the ice or snow can be removed.
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section 13-404
- Published by City of Prairie Village
13-404 Sidewalk; Removal of Ice and Snow, Prairie Village Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Manhattan
Over 24h
within 36 hours of the cessation of any measurable precipitation
It shall be unlawful for the owner or occupant of such property to fail to remove all accumulated snow and ice from such sidewalks within 36 hours of the cessation of any measurable precipitation which has so accumulated.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the owner or the occupant of any lot abutting upon any sidewalk used by the general public
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section Sec. 30-71
- Published by City of Manhattan
Sec. 30-71 Snow and ice to be removed from sidewalks by abutting property owner or occupant, Manhattan Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Lawrence
Over 24h
within 48 hours of the cessation of accumulation of snow or ice
It shall be unlawful for the property owner of record of property immediately adjacent to a public sidewalk on public rights-of-way to fail to remove from the sidewalk, within 48 hours of the cessation of accumulation of snow or ice on the sidewalk, any snow or ice accumulated on such sidewalk or obstructing such sidewalk.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the property owner of record of property immediately adjacent to a public sidewalk on public rights-of-way
What it says about ice
If ice has accumulated of such character as to make removal thereof impossible, the sprinkling or placement of sand thereon within the time specified for removal in such a manner as to make such sidewalk safe for travel of pedestrians shall be deemed in compliance with the provisions of this section.
- Penalty $20.00, and each day of a continuing violation is a separate offense
- Section Sec. 16-113
- Published by Lawrence Planning and Development Services
Sec. 16-113 Removal of snow or ice from public sidewalks, Lawrence Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Shawnee
Over 24h
within forty-eight (48) hours after the same shall cease to fall or accumulate
The owner or occupant of property abutting upon or adjacent to a Sidewalk within the City shall remove snow and ice from the Sidewalk abutting upon or adjacent to their property within forty-eight (48) hours after the same shall cease to fall or accumulate, or otherwise correct the hazard by the application of abrasive material.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
The owner or occupant of property abutting upon or adjacent to a Sidewalk within the City
What it says about ice
or otherwise correct the hazard by the application of abrasive material
- Section 12.06.230
- Published by City of Shawnee
12.06.230 Maintenance of Sidewalks; Snow Ice, and Debris Removal, Shawnee Municipal Code, read September 23, 2026
Wichita
No clock
The ordinance requires the walk cleared and names no time by which.
It is unlawful for the owner or occupant of any parcel to allow paint, soil, grass, leaves, sand, gravel, rocks, dirt, filth, mud, papers, stone, snow, ice, refuse, rubbish, or any other material to accumulate and/or grow over the abutting sidewalk, alley, or right-of-way.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
the owner or occupant of any parcel
- Penalty a misdemeanor
- Section Sec. 10.04.100
- Published by City of Wichita
Sec. 10.04.100 Sidewalks and rights-of-way to be kept clean by abutting property owners or occupants, Wichita Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026

Why one Kansas answer does not exist

Salina and Shawnee are 36 hours apart

A house on one side of a city line in Kansas has twelve hours and a house on the other has two days, which is the whole reason a state level answer to this question is no answer. 23 states carry a gap like it, the widest being Maine at 68 hours.

Neither city is wrong and neither is unusual. A sidewalk ordinance is written by a council for the street outside its own window, and nothing above it in Kansas obliges one council to look at what the next one wrote. The figure that applies to a reader is the one their own city published, which is why every card above carries the city’s name before it carries a number.

A sidewalk cleared earlier in the day with fresh wind blown snow already lying back across the outer half of it, a plowed road to one side and an unbroken snow field to the other — Almost every hour count on these pages runs from the end of the snowfall rather than from its start, which is the one drafting choice the ordinances broadly share. What counts as the end of it, and what a fresh drift across a cleared walk does to the clock, is left to the wording each city chose, and that wording is quoted in full on the state pages. “Snow drifting onto a shoveled sidewalk, Ewing Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, 2024-01-20”, Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0

What Kansas itself did

Kansas has written nothing on this

Nothing in the Kansas statutes was found setting a sidewalk clearing deadline, which leaves the question to the cities below.

That is the national pattern rather than a Kansas quirk. 13 of the 50 legislatures have a statute that touches sidewalk snow at all, 10 of those do nothing but let a city decide, and not one of them sets a deadline. The clock is a municipal ordinance everywhere in the country.

Nothing at state level

No Kansas statute was found on this

has no sidewalk clearing statute at all

What happens if it is not done

A bill or a penalty, depending on the Kansas city

Three Kansas cities publish a rule letting the city clear the walk and put the cost on the property. That is the commoner enforcement route nationally: 102 of the 187 cities with an ordinance carry one, against 105 that publish a penalty.

Two Kansas cities print a penalty beside the rule, one of them as a dollar figure and the rest as the class of offence the ordinance creates. Each is reproduced below in the words its own ordinance used.

Both routes are printed on the cards above in the sentence each was read from, because a penalty clause paraphrased is a different statement than the one the city made. Where a city publishes a page for reporting a walk that has not been cleared, that link is on its card too.

How Kansas compares

The same question in the other forty nine

150 cities nationally count in hours, and the counts run from no hours at all to 72. 74 land on exactly a day, 57 give twelve hours or less, and 18 give more than a day. A further 22 set a time of day or a depth of snow rather than a count of hours at all.

The bar splits those 150 cities by how long they allow, and the table beneath it orders the states by how tight their tightest city is, which is a different ranking from how much snow a state gets.

3 of 150No hours allowed
23 of 150Six hours or less
31 of 150Within twelve hours
75 of 150Within a day
18 of 150More than a day

Fifty states and 267 cities, read September 23, 2026.
State	What the legislature did	What its cities do	With an ordinance	Tightest city
Missouri	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	ImmediatelySt. Louis
Wyoming	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	3 of 3	ImmediatelySheridan
New Mexico	A cross reference	Cities count in hours	1 of 4	ImmediatelySanta Fe
Michigan	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	2hMarquette
Maryland	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	8 of 8	3hAnnapolis
Massachusetts	A city may	Cities count in hours	8 of 8	3hBoston
Pennsylvania	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	3hErie
Virginia	A city may	Cities count in hours	6 of 7	3hRoanoke
Connecticut	A city may	Cities count in hours	8 of 8	4hDanbury
Ohio	A city may	Cities count in hours	8 of 8	4hAthens
New York	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	4hNew York City
Maine	A city may	Cities count in hours	4 of 8	4hWaterville
Vermont	A city may	Cities count in hours	1 of 6	4hWinooski
Rhode Island	A city may	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	5hNewport
Indiana	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	6hWest Lafayette
Nebraska	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	8hFremont
New Jersey	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	8hJersey City
Utah	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	5 of 5	8hPark City
Iowa	Owner duty, no clock	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	10hAmes
Kansas	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	12hSalina
Delaware	Nothing found	Cities count in hours	5 of 5	12hMilford
Washington	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	3 of 4	12hSeattle
California	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	1 of 2	12hSouth Lake Tahoe
North Dakota	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	24hBismarck
Wisconsin	The city clears it	Cities count in hours	7 of 7	24hGreen Bay
Colorado	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	24hAurora
Illinois	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	24hChampaign
Minnesota	A city may	Cities count in hours	6 of 6	24hDuluth
Montana	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	5 of 5	24hBillings
South Dakota	A city may	Cities count in hours	5 of 5	24hWatertown
Oklahoma	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	3 of 7	24hTulsa
West Virginia	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	3 of 4	24hMorgantown
Alaska	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	2 of 3	24hSeward
Idaho	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	2 of 3	24hIdaho Falls
Texas	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	2 of 7	24hAmarillo
Arizona	Nothing at state level	Cities count in hours	1 of 5	24hFlagstaff
Oregon	Nothing at state level	Required, no time named	2 of 3	None published
Arkansas	Nothing at state level	Set by the clock or a depth	1 of 7	None published
Kentucky	Nothing at state level	Set by the clock or a depth	1 of 3	None published
Tennessee	Nothing at state level	Required, no time named	1 of 4	None published
Alabama	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
Florida	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
Georgia	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
Hawaii	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 2	None published
Louisiana	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 6	None published
Mississippi	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
Nevada	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published
New Hampshire	A city may	No city rule found	0 of 7	None published
North Carolina	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 4	None published
South Carolina	Nothing at state level	No city rule found	0 of 3	None published

Kansas sidewalk snow removal questions

How long do you have to shovel your sidewalk in Kansas?

Kansas has no sidewalk clearing statute at all. The clock is a city's instead, and five Kansas cities count in hours. The tightest is Salina at twelve hours and the loosest Shawnee at two days, a gap of 36 hours inside one state. Nationally the deadlines run from no hours at all to three days across 150 cities, and no state legislature anywhere has put a number on it. Five Kansas cities publish a count of hours, and each one below is quoted from the ordinance or the city page it was read from. The middle of the Kansas figures is 36 hours, against a day nationally.

Does Kansas have a state law about clearing sidewalks?

Why do two Kansas cities give different deadlines?

A house on one side of a city line in Kansas has twelve hours and a house on the other has two days, which is the whole reason a state level answer to this question is no answer. 23 states carry a gap like it, the widest being Maine at 68 hours. Salina writes: “It is hereby made the duty of the owner, occupant or person in charge of any lot or piece of land abutting on any sidewalk to remove all snow and ice fallen or accumulated upon the sidewalk within twelve (12) hours after such snow has fallen or ice has accumulated.”

Will the city clear my sidewalk in Kansas?

Three Kansas cities publish a rule letting the city clear the walk and put the cost on the property. That is the commoner enforcement route nationally: 102 of the 187 cities with an ordinance carry one, against 105 that publish a penalty. Salina sets it out this way: “The city manager is hereby authorized and empowered to cause the removal of snow and ice constituting a nuisance and to keep a true account of the cost of such removal and to report the cost as to each lot, tract or piece of land to the board of commissioners, and the board of commissioners shall pass an ordinance assessing the cost of such removal to the abutting lot, tract or piece of land, and such assessment shall be certified by the city clerk to the county clerk to be collected and paid over to the city in the same manner as other special assessments or taxes are collected and paid over to the city.”

What is the fine for not shovelling a sidewalk in Kansas?

Two Kansas cities print a penalty beside the rule, one of them as a dollar figure and the rest as the class of offence the ordinance creates. Each is reproduced below in the words its own ordinance used. Lawrence prints $20.00, and each day of a continuing violation is a separate offense: “Violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be considered a municipal offense and, upon an adjudication of guilty, the violator shall be fined $20.00. Each day of a continuing violation shall be deemed a separate offense.”

Does snow have to be cleared from the sidewalk or the street in Kansas?

Which cities in the country give you the least time?

How current is this?

Sidewalk snow removal rules in every state

Kansas ice damsWhat builds at the eaves while the walk is being cleared, and the conditions that put it there.Kansas ground snow loadThe other winter number a city sets and the state usually does not, and who publishes it where.Kansas snowpackWhat is actually on the ground this winter, measured daily, against the years behind it.Kansas frozen pipesThe other thing a long cold spell does to a building, and the temperatures it starts at.

Kansas read September 23, 2026: the municipal code and the city published pages of the 6 cities above. Every deadline, width, penalty and duty above links to the document it was published in and is reproduced in that document’s own wording. An hour count on this site is a sorting key derived from a city’s sentence and never a replacement for it. Councils amend ordinances on their own schedule, so the section linked beside a line is what governs on the day. What a particular property owes, and to whom, is a question for the city that published the ordinance.