One village of the seven has a sidewalk ordinance, and it is a precise one. The other six were built without sidewalk networks. And the state law that protects the person who shovels covers the public walk and nothing else.
Ordinances are summarized from each village’s published code and pages, with the section cited. A summary is not the code; confirm any rule with the village before relying on it. Work arranged through this site is done by an independent operator, not by this site.
Barrington village’s sidewalk rule is the only one in the seven villages, and it was read from the code. Under § 7-1-7A, “every owner, lessee, tenant, occupant or other person having charge of any premises” abutting a public sidewalk must keep it clear of snow. The clock:
The village’s information sheet adds that “the entire width of the sidewalk will be expected to be cleared,” and that snow removal “may not create dangerous traffic situations or cause damage to property.” The penalty under § 7-1-7D is the general one in § 1-4-1: a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $5,000, with each day a separate offense. Development Services handles complaints at (847) 304-3460. The village also says that residents who cannot shovel “due to health-related problems” or who are elderly may “contact the Public Works Department for a list of snow removal contractors,” and asks everyone to keep hydrants near their property clear.
A corner lot in Barrington has two public frontages and the curb ramps at the corner — two to three times the work of a mid-block house, and all of it blower and shovel work rather than plow work. Barrington.
No sidewalk-clearing ordinance was found in the published codes of Barrington Hills, North Barrington, Lake Barrington, South Barrington, Deer Park or Inverness, and none was found in a 2004 regional survey of sidewalk snow ordinances either. The reason is physical. Barrington Hills’ 2019 comprehensive plan says its “local service roads are intentionally designed without sidewalks or bike lanes,” and that “with the absence of sidewalks throughout the Village, the narrow roadways (with minimal, if any, shoulders) function as its recreational arteries.” The other five were platted on acre-and-larger lots with ditch-and-culvert road edges, where a public walk is the exception. Where a sidewalk does exist — along a collector, at a school, in Deer Park’s townhome district by the shopping center — the duty, if any, comes from a subdivision covenant or the general premises-liability rule, not from a village clock.
Illinois’ Snow and Ice Removal Act (745 ILCS 75) declares that residents should be “encouraged to clean the sidewalks abutting their residences of snow and ice,” and provides that any owner, occupant or person in charge of residential property, “or any agent of or other person engaged by any such party,” who removes or tries to remove snow from an abutting sidewalk is not liable for injuries from its snowy or icy condition unless the conduct was “willful or wanton.” The person a homeowner hires to shovel the walk is covered on the walk.
Two decisions draw the edges. In Murphy-Hylton v. Lieberman Management Services (2016), the Illinois Supreme Court held the Act immunizes negligent snow and ice removal efforts and does not reach ice that formed because of a defective downspout or drainage — a broader reading, the court said, would “reward a landowner’s passivity.” In Hussey v. Chase Manor (2018), the appellate court read “sidewalks abutting the property” to mean the public walk at the boundary — not walkways on the property, driveways or parking-lot paths. So the Act protects exactly the surface Barrington’s ordinance requires cleared, and none of the surfaces a contractor is usually hired for. On those, Illinois’ natural-accumulation rule applies: no duty to remove what fell naturally, and possible liability for an unnatural accumulation — a pile that melts across the walk and refreezes, a plowed ridge where people step, a sloped or badly drained surface. Salting or shoveling a natural accumulation does not, by itself, make it unnatural. More on Illinois snow law.
Knowing the rule and having the time at 5 a.m. to meet it are different things. Describe the property and get a season price from an operator who already works in that village.
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