Oxford City Council voted to charge a fee to property owners who do not remove ice or snow from their sidewalks at a recent council meeting. The ordinance, which passed unanimously during its second reading, has faced backlash from the community.
The ordinance, titled “Duty to keep sidewalks in repair and clean,” was first introduced at the last city council meeting Jan. 21. The decision to address snow and ice came after citizens and councilors saw uncleared sidewalks for weeks after the Jan. 5 and 6 snow fall.
Since first introduced, the ordinance changed to allow owners 24 hours to remove snow deposits three inches or more. City council also said the surfaces need to be cleared at least four feet wide to allow for walking.
If the snow is not removed within the 24 hours, city contractors or staff will clear the snow and owners will be charged for the service. An additional 40% administrative fee is added to encourage property owners to not rely on the city, said City Manager Douglas Elliot during the meeting.
The latest change to the ordinance clarifies what areas of Oxford this will affect. The ordinance applies to the city’s snow routes and US Route 27.
The city’s goals for 2024 included a goal to pass an ordinance to improve snow removal on high pedestrian sidewalks by March 2025, which was cited in the decision to pass the ordinance.
“We’re hopeful that this will become standard practice – that they’ll realize they need to clean their sidewalks,” Elliot said.
Mayor William Snavely addressed the comments received in their ‘comment form’ from Oxford citizens since the ordinance’s first reading.
“We’ve heard them, and we’ve read them,” said Snavely. “We think this ordinance resolves most of those issues.”
Among the citizens opposed to the proposed ordinance was Steve Chaffin, who owns a home along the Oxford snow routes. Chaffin said during one of the recent snowfalls he tried to clean the sidewalk himself, but found the snow too heavy, and by the time he could get hired help, several days had passed.
He proposed working with the existing property maintenance code, rather than creating a new one. The current property maintenance code would allow for complaints around certain areas, site-inspections if the city believed a certain area could be hazardous, notice before action is taken and an appeals process.
“This ordinance will impose an unreasonable duty on me to clean my sidewalk,” Chaffin said at the meeting. “I urge you to take a more cautious approach to this issue.”
After the meeting where the ordinance passed, Chaffin took to “Oxford Talk,” an online Facebook group to express his complaints with the ordinance. Over 100 comments on the post discussed a petition to make it a ballot issue, while some who agreed with the city council’s actions debated whether or not it would negatively affect those who can’t clean their sidewalks themselves.
Although there is no Ohio law addressing the issue, other cities in the state have made similar decisions. In Hamilton, 24 hours are given to residents to clear their sidewalks and any ice off their roofs in the “Snow Removal By-law.”
The next Oxford City Council meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Oxford Courthouse.
