Residential Plowing Program

The City’s regular snow and ice control program does not include plans for plowing residential streets.  With proper vehicle preparation, most residents can travel on residential roads after snow storms and access plowed snow routes with only minor inconvenience. Learn more on our Be Snow Savvy webpage.

Generally speaking, residential roads are not designed for snow removal.  A high number of intersections, curves and turns per mile of road in residential areas make it difficult to push snow to create a uniform travel lane.  Furthermore, the high number of driveway accesses and on-street parking spaces cause plowed snow to block residential uses more so than when these roads aren’t plowed.

In addition to the inconveniences, regular residential area plowing costs would be very high and require significant increases to the street maintenance sales tax.

In rare occasions, the City will plow residential roads after an extreme snow storm. Those rare efforts create rows of snow that range from four to six feet in height and require significant snow shoveling work by residents around cars and driveways.