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February 11, 2012 in City
Snow rules will be considered
Ordinance would regulate dumping of snow on public property
That guy who pushed all the snow from his driveway into the street could have to pay for blocking your morning commute.
The Spokane City Council on Monday will consider making it illegal to dump snow into the street, parks or other public lands.
“It’s always been a problem,” said Street Director Mark Serbousek. “We’ve tried to get them to comply the easy way.”
Namely, he said, by asking nicely.
While the city has claimed that dumping snow in public streets was illegal, what was on the books didn’t mention snow and is a general law about placing debris in the rights-of-way, Serbousek said. City officials said they are unaware if the law was ever used to penalize someone tossing snow onto public property.
The problem isn’t so much people who point the outflow of snow on their snowblowers so it flies into the street (though that would be illegal under the proposal). It’s mostly aimed at private plows that push large berms of snow into the right-of-way, Serbousek said.
The ordinance would make an exception to the ban for tossing snow in planting strips and adding to snow berms created by city plows, as long as adding to the berm doesn’t create hazards to drivers or pedestrians.
The proposed change to the city’s snow rules also would lower the fine on property owners for neglecting to shovel their sidewalks from $103, including court costs, to $52, including court costs.
City spokeswoman Marlene Feist said the change was made accidentally and the administration will recommend that the council amend the proposal on Monday to maintain the sidewalk fine at $103.
City officials say they haven’t issued tickets for violating the sidewalk law in recent memory.
Heather Trautman, the city’s code enforcement supervisor, said the city sent 20 warnings to property owners who didn’t clear their sidewalks after a snowstorm last month based on complaints.
She said the snow plan developed after snowstorms in 2008 called for the city to start issuing warnings before moving to ticketing.
The city should start enforcing the sidewalk-clearing law, said Greg Wing, the computer training program instructor for Inland Northwest Lighthouse for the Blind.
Wing, who is blind and uses a white cane and is a member of a city committee focused on improving sidewalk access, said he often must walk in the street after snowstorms because pathways aren’t cleared. He said people who use service dogs have similar problems.
“Obviously, that’s very dangerous,” he said.
Closing Geiger: Wise or worrisome? 
D Statler on February 11 at 8:01 a.m.
What about the city and county plows that throw debris all over the sidewalks after they have been cleared? Sometimes the danger created by the plows is greater than the good they do,publicly and privately.
lewis8457 on February 11 at 8:08 a.m.
yes do we get to fine the city for my sidewalk buried in ice chunks after i pay the neighbor to shovel it for me. the city needs to clean up their act before any one else will
back in 09 i was throwing the street snow back out in the street because the berms were too big for me to shovel onto them. A cop stopped asked me not to do it, told him this snow on my shovel is street snow and belongs in the street not on my clean sidewalk.
misjustice on February 11 at 8:14 a.m.
Brilliant! Citizens can/will be fined for snow violations but city plows that push boulders of compacted snow onto public sidewalks and private driveways are just doin’ their job?
The city plows come by long after citizens clear sidewalks and then render the walkways unusable but it is the citizens’ responsibility to keep walkways clear? Geez….
Additionally, I shovel and clear my drive in order to be able to get to work every morning and then I hope that the city plows don’t come down my street because they will plow me in.
There’s got to be a better way to keep the streets passable, sidewalks clear, and driveways open; and writing tickets to citizens isn’t it, IMO.
liveinfearoftheSPD on February 11 at 9:43 a.m.
This is just precious. The city creates an unsafe situation, then wants to fine citizens for not cleaning up the messes they themselves make!
Put the gates back on the plows and keep peoples driveways open.
An 80 year old woman living on a fixed income, she lives alone. She has to do without something to pay some kid to shovel her sidewalk. Then the city comes along and buries the walk worse than it was from just the snowfall. So the woman has to decide, should I pay the kid triple to clean up this mess, as it is now worse and demands more pay for the work, or does she ignore it and have to pay the fine? Either way she may have to go without food for a week or her meds for a month so she can appease the city.
Heart attack rates go up in the winter months from shoveling snow alone. The city adds to that by making everyone’s job three times harder than it should be.
mtharves on February 11 at 10:27 a.m.
I was watching the coverage of the storm in Europe and saw that cities there have these “snow chutes” that paddle up snow onto a chute that then empties into a dump truck. No berms, no buried sidewalks, and clean streets. We can and must do better. This battle of the “highway or my way” has to end.
Teseract on February 11 at 1:05 p.m.
I’m still recovering from a serious car accident and have a lot of lower back problems, there’s no way I can shovel it myself and I have something called a “job” that I have to do rather than spending all my time doing what amounts to slave labor for the city.
I don’t even bother shoveling out the berm the city dumps into my driveway anymore. I live on a street that’s on a bus route, so during a heavy snow I might have plows come by 4-5 times a DAY. I’d come out to pick up my trash can from the curb the next day after clearing it from the previous plow coming by, and it would be entombed in 3’ of snow and ice!
My solution? I bought a nice big 4x4 truck with big knobby tires and I just drive over the top of it. This way I don’t have to shovel my driveway either. I just drive up and down it a few times with said 4x4 until it gets packed down nice and tight then forget about it until it melts. This saves me the medical bills from going to the doctor begging for more pain killers and muscle relaxants.
Besides, doesn’t shoveling the sidewalk make me liable if someone slips and falls on it? They love telling private snow plow owners not to plow where the city neglects to do so due to “liability issues” then they tell us to clear the city-owned sidewalks “or else”? What happens when Grandma falls and breaks her hip in front of my house on the city sidewalk I just shoveled and sues the crap out of me? Is the city going to step in and indemnify me? I don’t think so!
The next place I move to won’t be in the city limits. It won’t have a sidewalk either, that way some bureaucrat who’s probably never lifted a shovelful of snow in his or her life won’t threaten to fine me for not jumping to it I’m some serf to the city of Spokane.
mary1958 on February 11 at 1:26 p.m.
I never thought about snow when I bought my corner lot some 21 years ago. That’s a lot of sidewalk!! I never heard about the planting strip issue. Since people don’t walk or drive there what in the heck is wrong with snow on the strips? I have no where else to put the snow. Crikey. The plows used to consider your driveway if you have it marked with poles and does not anymore. I also did not expect to have a lower back problem 21 years ago. One must think ahead. The joys of home ownership has a few kinks. I always clear my walks but that concrete chunk snow that gets plowed into my driveway is VERY difficult to lift. I would be very angry if I got a ticket.
andrew5 on February 11 at 1:39 p.m.
The article states that 20 warnings were sent to property owners, but also that no tickets have been issued in recent memory…what is the point? Obviously no one will listen to a warning if there is nothing to back it up. Instead of a warning, issue a ticket.
JanB on February 11 at 10:56 p.m.
They haven’t been giving tickets to people who are parked on the wrong side of the street under the new plow rules - how the heck are they going to ticket people for throwing snow in the road? On a lighter note can I turn in my nut job of a neighbor who actually shovels snow out of her BACK yard into the road much to the annoyance of everyone on our street who has to navigate through the mounds of snow…