Des Plaines homeowners, get ready to shovel

Des Plaines residents may soon be required to clear snow from their sidewalks in a timely manner or risk being ticketed. Businesses in the city already have this responsibility.

The legal and licensing committee of the city council, chaired by Fifth Ward Alderman Carla Brookman, is considering the measure for public safety purposes and is hoping to have an ordinance ready for a council vote before this winter is over.

The committee is grappling with difficult issues like what to do about sidewalks that run behind people's homes on long stretches of arterial roads and what to do about homeowners with physical difficulties or financial hardships.

"Yet, we don't want people to be forced to walk on main thoroughfares during snow events," Alderman Brookman said.

"The intent of the current ordinance for businesses and any new one enacted would be compliance, not fines," City Manager Jason Bajor said.

The amendments to the current snow removal ordinance that are being discussed include requiring homeowners to clear their front and side yard sidewalks when there is a snowfall accumulation of two inches or more and a provision for a ticket of $25 to be issued for the first offense and $50 for subsequent offenses. These tickets would be issued per snowfall occurrence, not per day.

Last winter, according to city records, police wrote nine tickets to businesses along Oakton Street for failing to clear snow from sidewalks. All of these tickets were preceded by warning letters which usually resulted in compliance, according to Police Chief Jim Prandini.

Illinois case law suggests the homeowner can be liable if someone is injured because of their failure to clean their sidewalk of snow, City Attorney David Wiltse said. Any new Des Plaines ordinance would have no affect on this liability, even if it said the city wasn't going to site homeowners for not cleaning snow in certain areas, such as when sidewalks run behind the property, he said.