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.

New Mexico Sidewalk Snow Removal: No Hours Allowed

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

The rules collected here are sidewalk rules, and the great majority of New Mexico 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 New Mexico 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

Sec. 3-49-1 NMSA 1978

0h

What its cities allow

in the one city that counts in hours

1 of 4

Cities with an ordinance

1 clear it themselves and bill

September 23, 2026

Read

municipal code and city pages

The short answer

Santa Fe allows no hours at all, and New Mexico law sets nothing above it

New Mexico has a statute its cities point at, and nothing about who it binds or on what clock was read from the statute itself. The clock is a city's instead, and one New Mexico city counts in hours. 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 cross reference1 of 4 cities with an ordinance1 counting in hours1 clear it themselves

City by city, in each city’s own words

The one New Mexico city that publishes an ordinance

One New Mexico city publishes 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 New Mexico figures is no hours at all, 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.

Santa Fe
Immediately
after any fall of snow shall cause snow and ice to be immediately removed
The owners, agents or occupants of any property shall keep the sidewalks and gutters in front of and adjoining such property clean of snow and ice and after any fall of snow shall cause snow and ice to be immediately removed from the sidewalks and gutters fronting and adjoining their respective lots or parts of lots; provided that snow and ice not be placed in the street.
Whose duty it is, as the ordinance puts it
The owners, agents or occupants of any property
What it says about ice
provided that snow and ice not be placed in the street
- If it is not done the city may clear it and charge the property
- Section 23-1.8 - Removal of snow and ice from sidewalks.
- Published by City of Santa Fe, Code of Ordinances Chapter XXIII Streets, Sidewalks and Public Places
23-1.8 Removal of snow and ice from sidewalks, Santa Fe Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026

What New Mexico itself did

The New Mexico statute, and what it does not do

New Mexico's statutes carry a section on removal of snow and ice that Santa Fe's own code cross references, but the statute text itself was not reached this session, so nothing about who it binds or on what clock is recorded here.

That is the national pattern rather than a New Mexico 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.

A cross reference and nothing read behind it

Sec. 3-49-1 NMSA 1978

City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Code of Ordinances

has a statute its cities point at, and nothing about who it binds or on what clock was read from the statute itself

State Law reference— Removal of snow and ice, Sec. 3-49-1 NMSA 1978.

City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

What happens if it is not done

New Mexico cities that clear it and charge the property

One New Mexico city publishes 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.

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

3 New Mexico cities read publish no clearing ordinance

Santa Fe is the one New Mexico city in this record that puts a sidewalk clearing duty on owners, and it says immediately with the city free to send its own laborers and put the bill on the property as a lien, while Las Cruces, Farmington and Los Alamos County publish codes whose only mentions of snow are about vehicle lamps and building loads.

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.

Farmington
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
- Published by City of Farmington, Code of Ordinances
Farmington, New Mexico Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Las Cruces
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
- Published by City of Las Cruces, Municipal Code
Las Cruces, New Mexico Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026
Los Alamos
No ordinance found
No sidewalk clearing ordinance was found for this city.
- Published by Incorporated County of Los Alamos, Code of Ordinances
Los Alamos County, New Mexico Code of Ordinances, read September 23, 2026

How New Mexico 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

New Mexico sidewalk snow removal questions

How long do you have to shovel your sidewalk in New Mexico?

New Mexico has a statute its cities point at, and nothing about who it binds or on what clock was read from the statute itself. The clock is a city's instead, and one New Mexico city counts in hours. 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. One New Mexico city publishes 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 New Mexico figures is no hours at all, against a day nationally.

Does New Mexico have a state law about clearing sidewalks?

New Mexico's statutes carry a section on removal of snow and ice that Santa Fe's own code cross references, but the statute text itself was not reached this session, so nothing about who it binds or on what clock is recorded here. The section is Sec. 3-49-1 NMSA 1978, published by City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Code of Ordinances. It reads: “State Law reference— Removal of snow and ice, Sec. 3-49-1 NMSA 1978.”

Will the city clear my sidewalk in New Mexico?

One New Mexico city publishes 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. Santa Fe sets it out this way: “On the failure of any persons named above to remove snow and ice from the sidewalks and gutters, the proper city officials may cause such snow and ice to be immediately removed by laborers employed by the city; in such event, the costs and charges of removing the snow and ice shall become a lien and charge against the premises, to be paid on demand to the city clerk by the person failing to observe the provisions of paragraph A of this subsection.”

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

Which cities in the country give you the least time?

How current is this?

Sidewalk snow removal rules in every state

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

New Mexico read September 23, 2026: the municipal code and the city published pages of the 4 cities above, and Sec. 3-49-1 NMSA 1978. 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.