Posts Tagged ‘snow’

County officials were there to listen. And thanks to the myriad of concerns expressed by residents, there was plenty of listening to do.

At an informal public forum on Arlington’s proposed snow removal ordinance, a group of about 30 residents took turns dissecting every possible facet of the two-page statute.

The proposed ordinance legally mandates that home and business owners clear snow from their sidewalks and prohibits the dumping snow on streets and other public property. A violation would theoretically be greeted with a $100 fine and, if necessary, a bill for the cost of hiring a private contractor to clear the stretch of sidewalk in question.

But what may seem straightforward actually generated a slew of questions:

• Why shouldn’t the county face the same stringent snow removal standards for public property?
• Wouldn’t this place an unfair burden on certain residents in areas where only one side of the street has a sidewalk?
• Would you be violating the ordinance by clearing snow off a car that’s parked in the street?
• What if residents are traveling?  Since they’ll know your house is unoccupied, is it safe to hire someone to clear the sidewalk while you’re gone?
• Where do you put the snow if you don’t have a front yard?
• What sort of recourse do you have if a county plow deposits snow onto your freshly-shoveled sidewalk?

Those last two questions were the most controversial — and the most commonly asked.

“Giving the county the authority and ability to fine me for not shoveling my sidewalk is a really bad idea,” one man said. “We worked really hard to shovel our sidewalk all the way around, and then the county came along and plowed it over. They were the worst offenders during this winter.”

The county should figure out where residents can lawfully place the snow before enacting the ordinance, another resident said. “For me, the fundamental issue is: tell me where the snow goes.”

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In 2004, the city of Hagerstown charged an 86-year-old woman $223 for not clearing her sidewalk after a snowstorm. That same year, the city of Frederick, Md. sent snow removal bills to the state-run Maryland School for the Deaf and to an elderly couple confined to walkers.

The Hagerstown incident caused a “public outcry” that forced the city to ease up on enforcement, the Associated Press reported at the time. A photo of the elderly couple in Frederick, which ran in a local newspaper, is a classic study in bad PR.

Arlington is now considering a snow removal ordinance similar to the statutes in place in Hagerstown and Frederick. The proposed ordinance has garnered headlines like “Arlington Proposes Criminal Charges for Unneighborly Snow Shovelers” and “Arlington Says Clear Your Sidewalks or Pay Up.” Clearly, history risks repeating itself.

County officials, however, say they’ve been trying to learn from our neighbors.

“Staff reviewed numerous jurisdictions that have ordinances or conditions that govern sidewalk snow removal,” says Arlington County transportation planning chief Thomas Bruccoleri.

Among the jurisdictions studied:

• The City of Alexandria requires property owners to clear sidewalks within 24 hours. Alexandria’s ordinance assesses a $50 civil penalty, but only after written notice has been issued.
• Loudoun County requires property owners to clear sidewalks within 6 hours. People with physical or mental disabilities, and people over the age of 65, are exempted. The county provides written notice and has not had to issue fines due to high compliance. Like Arlington’s proposed ordinance, Loudoun can assess a fine of up to $250, which is a class 4 misdemeanor.
• Fairfax County does not have a sidewalk snow removal ordinance.

Arlington is set to hold a public hearing on a permanent snow removal ordinance on Saturday, June 12.

The proposed ordinance would require residential and commercial property owners to clear snow from sidewalks 24-36 hours after snow stops falling. It would make it a misdemeanor to shovel snow onto public property, including streets and bus stops.

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Nearly two months later, and there’s at least one last remnant of Snowmageddon left in Arlington (which should make the county board feel better about passing that temporary snow removal ordinance three weeks ago).

Flickr pooler Expresso2222 snapped this photo yesterday next to the Ballston Common Mall Parking lot.

The shady spot has allowed the giant pile of snow to stick around through rain storms and sunny 70+ degree days. Whether it will survive today’s high of 80 degrees is yet to be seen.

Succumbing to 60 degree temperatures, melting snow piles are revealing their secrets, giving way to dirt and some interesting debris.

In the parking lot of the defunct Crystal City Motel, what was once a mountain of snow that almost reached the building’s second floor is rapidly becoming a wide expanse of wet filth.

Elsewhere in Crystal City, a battered digital camera sat in the middle of a traffic lane where a pile of snow one stood. How it got there is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear it was run over, perhaps multiple times. Assumedly, it had been there, covered with snow, for at least a month.

After the snowiest winter on record, signs of spring finally arrived this weekend.

At Virginia Highlands Park in Pentagon City on Sunday, the county’s snow melter sat idle as 60 degree weather ate away at the monstrous piles of dirty snow surrounding the parking lot.

Soccer, football, tennis and basketball were all being played, with most of the participants emboldened enough by the mild temperatures to ditch their jackets and track pants for shorts and t-shirts.

Squirrels scurried about, digging for acorns and heading for high tree branches when one was found.

It’s a scene that’s sure to be repeated, with sunny days in the mid- to low-sixties predicted for much of the week.

The snow we were expecting, for once, did not materialize. Instead, it looks like we’ll have 40-50 mile per hour wind gusts later today.

County road crews, who were prepared to temporarily halt pothole repairs to focus on clearing snow, can now continue patching Arlington’s pockmarked streets.

Arlington County has issued an alert regarding the potential for significant snowfall on Thursday.

National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch for our area, beginning late Wednesday night through Thursday night.  There is potential for 5 or more inches of snow.

To help speed up the work already being done by mother nature, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority says it will be plowing the remaining snow from the W&OD trail this week. People Powered Arlington has more details.

On a related note, snow and downed tree branches are apparently still a major problem on Theodore Roosevelt Island’s trails. Check out the photos on We Love DC.

Update on 2/18 – Several public works crews were out on Military Road today. A police officer was posted at Military Road and 26th Road this afternoon to help Taylor Elementary students cross the street.

Huge boulders of ice, snow and road filth cover the sidewalks along Military Road in the Donaldson Run section of Arlington, near Taylor Elementary School, forcing pedestrians to walk dangerously close to fast-moving traffic on the busy commuter route.

Over the weekend, the county asked residents to help kids get back to school by clearing the sidewalks in front of their homes. But some residents, fearing retribution for not following through on the request, are asking: how do mere mortals move six-foot-high mountains of icy snow?

“It would take a battalion” to clear the sidewalk, one Military Road resident said.

“I don’t think there’s a way anybody can realistically take care of this,” said another resident. In 23 years of living in Arlington “we never got this much snow piled on the sidewalk.”

Residents we talked to were particularly frustrated by the fact that the sidewalk snow mountains were the result of the county’s own snow removal efforts. After clearing the main roadway, residents said, plows cleared the adjacent bike lane, pushing the snow, ice and dirt onto the narrow sidewalk.

The county has warned that plows, by their very nature, will push snows from the road onto sidewalks and driveways. Residents say they understand and appreciate the snow removal challenges, but add that they should not be responsible for removing such massive amounts of plowed precipitation.

The county, for its part, has been actively treating some walkways. Officials admit, however, that they don’t have the resources to get to every trouble spot as quickly as they would like.

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Arlington students are set to return to school this morning after enjoying a snowy, week-long reprieve from classes.

Arlington Public Schools are opening on a two-hour delay today due to continued concerns about road and sidewalk conditions. Over the weekend, the county urged property owners to clear sidewalks so students could safely walk to and from school.