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.

Maine Sidewalk Snow Removal: 4 to 72 Hours

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

The rules collected here are sidewalk rules, and the great majority of Maine 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 Maine 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.

A rule, not a clock

What state law sets

30-A M.R.S. §3009(1)(A)

4 to 72h

The range across its cities

[object Object] is the tightest

4 of 8

Cities with an ordinance

3 clear it themselves and bill

September 23, 2026

Read

3 publish a penalty

The short answer

Maine runs from four hours in Waterville to three days in Lewiston

Maine has a statute that does one thing only, which is to let a local government pass a rule of its own. The clock is a city's instead, and three Maine cities count in hours. The tightest is Waterville at four hours and the loosest Lewiston at three days, a gap of 68 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.

A city may4 of 8 cities with an ordinance3 counting in hours3 clear it themselves

City by city, in each city’s own words

The 4 Maine cities that publish an ordinance

Three Maine 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 Maine figures is 18 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.

Waterville
Up to 6h
Within four hours of the ceasing of snowfall, if in the daytime. Before 10 a.m. of the day following said snowfall if in the nighttime
The tenant or occupant of any store, shop, dwelling house, factory, hotel or other building, or any vacant lot or land, bordering upon any sidewalk on the business parts of Main, Elm, Water, Silver, Common, and Temple Streets, College Avenue, The Concourse, and Kennedy Memorial Drive, and in case there shall be no tenant, the owner or any person having the care or control of any building or lot or land bordering upon the aforenamed streets, shall cause snow to be removed from such sidewalk within the following times: Within four hours of the ceasing of snowfall, if in the daytime. Before 10 a.m. of the day following said snowfall if in the nighttime; provided that if the following day is Sunday, before 10 a.m. of the following Monday.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
The tenant or occupant of any store, shop, dwelling house, factory, hotel or other building, or any vacant lot or land, bordering upon any sidewalk on the business parts of Main, Elm, Water, Silver, Common, and Temple Streets, College Avenue, The Concourse, and Kennedy Memorial Drive, and in case there shall be no tenant, the owner or any person having the care or control of any building or lot or land bordering upon the aforenamed streets
What it says about ice
Such tenant or occupant, owner or agent, whenever ice shall have formed upon any sidewalk, as aforesaid, shall cause the same to be removed or to be properly covered or strewed with sand, ashes, or other suitable substance, in such a manner as to render said sidewalk safe and convenient for travelers on foot.
- Section City of Waterville Ordinance Governing Streets and Sidewalks Sec. 3-4. Removal of Sidewalk Snow.
- Published by City of Waterville Public Works Department
Sidewalks, City of Waterville Public Works, Winter Operations, read September 23, 2026
Portland
13h to 24h
within twelve (12) hours after snow has ceased to fall for commercial property; within eighteen (18) hours after snow has ceased to fall, or within eighteen (18) hours after the city conducts its last snow clearing for that storm on the adjacent street, whichever is later, for residential property
Residential property owners, or the manager or any person having the responsibility for any residential property building or lot of land which abuts a street where there is a sidewalk shall remove snow from the sidewalk in such a manner as to clear a path four (4) feet wide within eighteen (18) hours after snow has ceased to fall or within eighteen (18) hours after the city conducts its last snow clearing for that storm on the adjacent street, whichever is later.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
Commercial property owners, or the manager or any person having responsibility for any commercial building or lot of land which abuts any street where there is a sidewalk; Residential property owners, or the manager or any person having the responsibility for any residential property building or lot of land which abuts a street where there is a sidewalk
What it says about ice
Whenever the sidewalk or any part thereof adjoining any building or lot of land on any street shall be encumbered with ice for eighteen (18) hours or more, it shall be the duty of the residential property owner and any person having the responsibility for such building or lot to cause such sidewalk to be made safe and convenient by removing the ice therefrom or by covering the same with sand or some other suitable substance and reapply as needed, so that the sidewalk is suitable for pedestrian use, to a width of four (4) feet. For commercial property the same duty arises where the sidewalk is encumbered with ice for six (6) hours or more during the daytime.
- Width a path four (4) feet wide
- Penalty $250.00 first offence, $500.00 second offence in the same winter season, $1,000.00 any subsequent offence in the same season for commercial property; $75.00 first offence, $125.00 second offence in the same winter season, $250.00 any subsequent offence in the same season for residential property
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section Sec. 25-173. Snow and ice to be removed from sidewalks.
- Published by City of Portland Department of Public Works
Code of Ordinances, Chapter 25, Streets, Sidewalks and Other Public Places, City of Portland, read September 23, 2026
Lewiston
Over 24h
within 72 hours, for snow or ice that has been shoveled, thrown, plowed or deposited on a winter-maintained public sidewalk
The owner of land and the person(s) in possession of such land abutting a public street or public easement have an affirmative obligation to inspect those portions of their property which have such frontage and to promptly remove within 72 hours any snow and/or ice that has been shoveled, thrown, plowed or deposited on any winter-maintained public sidewalk or public walkway and within or along the edge of the travel way of any public street and/or public easement found along such property.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
The owner of land and the person(s) in possession of such land abutting a public street or public easement
- Penalty a fine equal to twice the removal costs, minimum $200.00, for a first offence; a fine equal to three times the removal costs, minimum $400.00, for a second or subsequent violation within two years
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section Sec. 66-12. Removal of unlawful deposits of snow and/or ice from public sidewalks, public walkways, public streets and public easements.
- Published by City of Lewiston Department of Public Works
Lewiston Code, Chapter 66, Streets and Sidewalks, City of Lewiston, read September 23, 2026
Biddeford
No clock
The ordinance requires the walk cleared and names no time by which.
City ordinances (Chapter 62 Sec. 62-1) require property owners in the downtown business area to remove ice and snow from the public sidewalks abutting their properties.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
property owners in the downtown business area
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section Chapter 62, Section 62-1
- Published by City of Biddeford Public Works Department
Downtown Winter Sidewalk Maintenance, City of Biddeford Public Works, read September 23, 2026

Why one Maine answer does not exist

Waterville and Lewiston are 68 hours apart

A house on one side of a city line in Maine has four hours and a house on the other has three 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 Maine 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 Maine itself did

The Maine statute, and what it does not do

Maine sets no statewide shovelling deadline; state law instead lets each municipality decide whether abutting owners must clear the sidewalk.

That is the national pattern rather than a Maine 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.

Permission for a local government to write one

30-A M.R.S. §3009(1)(A)

Maine Legislature, Office of the Revisor of Statutes

has a statute that does one thing only, which is to let a local government pass a rule of its own

The municipal officers may regulate pedestrian traffic in the public ways, including, but not limited to, setting off portions of a municipality's public ways for sidewalks and regulating their use; providing for the removal of snow and ice from the sidewalks by the owner, occupant or agent having charge of the abutting property; and establishing crosswalks or safety zones for pedestrians.

Maine Legislature, Office of the Revisor of Statutes, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

What happens if it is not done

A bill or a penalty, depending on the Maine city

Three Maine 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.

Three Maine cities print a penalty beside the rule, each as a dollar figure. 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.

Where nothing was found

4 Maine cities read publish no clearing ordinance

Maine leaves sidewalk shovelling entirely to its cities, and they disagree sharply: Waterville gives four daytime hours downtown, Portland gives twelve hours to a business and eighteen to a household with fines up to $1,000, Lewiston gives 72 hours for snow pushed onto a walk, and Auburn, Westbrook, Saco and Brunswick set no deadline at all.

Where a city publishes no clearing ordinance, there is no municipal deadline to count against and no municipal penalty behind it, and what stands is the state's own position set out above. Each card below links to the chapter of the code it was read from. Nationally 80 of the 267 cities read are in the same position.

Auburn
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
Any person who shall place or cause to be placed any snow or ice upon the surface of a city maintained road or sidewalk resulting in an obstruction to vehicles traveling and parking or to pedestrians passing shall be in violation of this section and subject to penalties as provided herein.
- Penalty a penalty not exceeding a written warning for the first offense, $50.00 fine for the second offense, and $100.00 fine for the third and all subsequent offenses (for depositing snow on a street or sidewalk)
- Section Sec. 46-33. Depositing snow on street or sidewalk.
- Published by City of Auburn Public Works
Code of Ordinances, Chapter 46, Streets, Sidewalks and Other Public Places, City of Auburn, read September 23, 2026
Brunswick
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
Brunswick has 40 miles of sidewalks, and we begin clearing them as soon as possible after our initial road work is complete. We first do the downtown area and the school zones and then work our way to all other areas.
- Published by Town of Brunswick Department of Public Works
Winter Services, Town of Brunswick Department of Public Works, read September 23, 2026
Saco
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
§ 186-53 Obstruction of public ways prohibited. No person shall place or deposit or cause to be placed or deposited any ice, snow, objects, material or any other obstruction on any road, highway, street, lane or sidewalk in the City of Saco in such a manner as to obstruct or create a hazard to vehicles traveling on such road, highway, street or lane or to obstruct or create a hazard to pedestrians using sidewalks.
- Section § 186-53 Obstruction of public ways prohibited
- Published by City of Saco Public Works Department
Winter Operations, City of Saco Public Works, read September 23, 2026
Westbrook
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
No person shall lay, throw, place or plow or cause to be laid, thrown, placed or plowed, on or into any public street or public sidewalk, any snow or ice from private property.
- Section Sec. 29-5. Removal of snow from private property to streets or sidewalks; penalty.
- Published by City of Westbrook
City of Westbrook Code of Ordinances, Chapter 29, Streets and Sidewalks, read September 23, 2026

How Maine 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

Maine sidewalk snow removal questions

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

Maine has a statute that does one thing only, which is to let a local government pass a rule of its own. The clock is a city's instead, and three Maine cities count in hours. The tightest is Waterville at four hours and the loosest Lewiston at three days, a gap of 68 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. Three Maine 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 Maine figures is 18 hours, against a day nationally.

Does Maine have a state law about clearing sidewalks?

Maine sets no statewide shovelling deadline; state law instead lets each municipality decide whether abutting owners must clear the sidewalk. The section is 30-A M.R.S. §3009(1)(A), published by Maine Legislature, Office of the Revisor of Statutes. It reads: “The municipal officers may regulate pedestrian traffic in the public ways, including, but not limited to, setting off portions of a municipality's public ways for sidewalks and regulating their use; providing for the removal of snow and ice from the sidewalks by the owner, occupant or agent having charge of the abutting property; and establishing crosswalks or safety zones for pedestrians.”

Why do two Maine cities give different deadlines?

A house on one side of a city line in Maine has four hours and a house on the other has three 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. Waterville writes: “The tenant or occupant of any store, shop, dwelling house, factory, hotel or other building, or any vacant lot or land, bordering upon any sidewalk on the business parts of Main, Elm, Water, Silver, Common, and Temple Streets, College Avenue, The Concourse, and Kennedy Memorial Drive, and in case there shall be no tenant, the owner or any person having the care or control of any building or lot or land bordering upon the aforenamed streets, shall cause snow to be removed from such sidewalk within the following times: Within four hours of the ceasing of snowfall, if in the daytime. Before 10 a.m. of the day following said snowfall if in the nighttime; provided that if the following day is Sunday, before 10 a.m. of the following Monday.”

Will the city clear my sidewalk in Maine?

Three Maine 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. Portland sets it out this way: “If the City removes snow or ice which exists in violation of the provisions of subsections (1) or (2) above or arranges for its removal, such owner shall be responsible for the cost of removal of the snow or ice plus a ten (10%) percent charge for administration. A separate bill for each such removal shall be submitted to the record owner of the abutting property as soon as practicable after the charges are incurred.”

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

Three Maine cities print a penalty beside the rule, each as a dollar figure. Each is reproduced below in the words its own ordinance used. Portland prints $250.00 first offence, $500.00 second offence in the same winter season, $1,000.00 any subsequent offence in the same season for commercial property; $75.00 first offence, $125.00 second offence in the same winter season, $250.00 any subsequent offence in the same season for residential property: “In addition to any cost of removal charged under subsection (3) above, penalties shall accrue for violations of subsections (1) and (2). The penalty for a first offense shall be seventy-five dollars ($75.00). The penalty for a second offense in the same winter season shall be one hundred and twenty-five dollars ($125.00). The penalty for any subsequent offense in the same winter season shall be two hundred and fifty dollars ($250.00).”

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

Which cities in the country give you the least time?

How current is this?

Sidewalk snow removal rules in every state

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

Maine read September 23, 2026: the municipal code and the city published pages of the 8 cities above, and 30-A M.R.S. §3009(1)(A). 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.