Hopkins runs two sidewalk clocks — 12 hours to do it yourself, 24 before city workers do it and bill you — and says plainly that the ordinance will be enforced. It is also the city that explains, on its own website, why it will not ban winter parking. Both facts change what a Hopkins quote has to cover.
There is no published price for snow removal in Hopkins specifically. What is published, by named Twin Cities operators, is the metro range below. The section after it is what pulls a Hopkins quote toward one end or the other.
Sources are named Twin Cities operators' own published price pages, gathered September 2026. The metro-level breakdown, with the corner-lot mechanism explained.
Twelve hours yours, twenty-four theirs. Under City Code Section 36-175 the owner or occupant of any property with a public sidewalk clears snow and ice within 12 hours after a snowfall, and the city states that this ordinance will be enforced. At 24 hours, city workers remove it and bill the owner at council-set fees, with a time-and-equipment charge above standard rates where significant depth or heavy equipment is needed. That puts public frontage into a Hopkins quote as a hard requirement on a tight clock — the same mechanism that drives Minneapolis pricing, with half the time. Walkway work is published at $25 to $60 a visit across the metro; on a corner, two frontages.
Much of Hopkins was built when there were fewer cars. That is the city’s own explanation for refusing a winter parking ban: off-street parking is hard to find in parts of Hopkins and a ban would be a hardship for many households. Restrictions apply only during a declared snow emergency, which may follow a two-inch snowfall but is discretionary. For a route that means cars on the street most nights, and slower passes on the older dense blocks than in a cleared cul-de-sac suburb. It does not appear as a line on your quote; it is part of why an old-street driveway costs more per visit than a new-subdivision one.
The enforcement clock is published. An afternoon or early-evening declaration means tagging and towing normally begins at 9 p.m. Get on the city’s alert list; a ticket is a cost this page cannot price for you, because the city does not publish it.
Hopkins is one of the few metro suburbs with a published clear-and-bill mechanism: uncleared at 24 hours, city workers clear it and the owner is billed at fees set by the City Council, higher on a time-and-equipment basis where depth or heavy equipment is involved. The fee schedule itself is not reproduced on the snow page, so this site states no amount — but it is a real cost, and a contract that clears the walk inside 12 hours is the way to avoid it. No ticket or tow figure is published.
Snow into the street carries the statewide misdemeanor under Minn. Stat. § 169.42, $400 minimum on a second offense, reaching the homeowner who caused it.
A seasonal contract in Hopkins is not the cheap option and it is not the expensive one. Against the DNR's average of 7.6 two-inch days a season, per-visit billing at $75 to $100 lands at $570 to $760 — right on the $600 to $750 seasonal range. What you are choosing is whether a 39-inch February is your problem or the operator's. In Hopkins the 12-hour deadline makes a per-visit arrangement risky on any storm that ends after dark: if the operator reaches you at noon, the city may already have a crew on your walk and an invoice in the mail. The honest version of that comparison.
No Hopkins-specific rate is published. Established Twin Cities operators publish $600 to $750 a season for a suburban driveway and front walk and $45 to $100 a visit. Hopkins’ 12-hour sidewalk deadline means a property with public frontage should expect the walk in scope, which moves the quote above the driveway-only tier.
The ordinance is enforced. At 24 hours city workers clear the walk and bill you at council-set fees, more if heavy equipment is needed. The city does not publish the fee schedule on its snow page, so this site states no amount.
The city says so directly: much of Hopkins was built when there were fewer cars and a ban would be a hardship. Restrictions apply only during a declared snow emergency.
City rules on this page come from the city’s own published pages and are laid out in full on the Hopkins service-area page. Where the city publishes no rule, this page says so rather than borrowing a neighbor’s.
Address, driveway size, how much public sidewalk you front, and whether it is a corner. Four facts, and the range above becomes a quote.
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