Most people assume this is a city nuisance rule. It is not — it is a state statute, it is a misdemeanor, and the wording reaches the property owner who hired the plow as well as the operator driving it.
“No person shall throw, deposit, place, or dump, or cause to be thrown, deposited, placed, or dumped upon any street or highway or upon any public or privately owned land adjacent thereto without the owner’s consent any snow, ice, glass bottle, glass, nails, tacks, wire, cans, garbage, swill, papers, ashes, cigarette filters, debris from fireworks, refuse, carcass of any dead animal, offal, trash or rubbish or any other form of offensive matter…”
Minn. Stat. § 169.42, subd. 1
Snow is named first, ahead of the broken glass and the dead animals. That placement is not an accident of drafting.
A violation is a misdemeanor under subdivision 5. A second or subsequent offense carries a minimum $400 fine, and the court may additionally order four to eight hours of litter cleanup on public highways.
Read the phrase “or cause to be…dumped” again. The statute does not only reach the person operating the plow. It reaches the person who arranged for the snow to end up there. Hiring someone does not move the exposure off you — which is a reasonable thing to raise with an operator before the season rather than after a citation.
“It’s against the law to shovel snow into streets or alleys.” Note that alleys are named alongside streets.
Prohibits plowing, pushing or shoveling snow into the streets from alleys, driveways, parking lots or sidewalks — every origin point named explicitly.
Plymouth: “It is unlawful to shovel, plow or blow snow into the street.” Eden Prairie: “It is illegal to place snow on a public roadway.”
Prohibits pushing, blowing, shoveling or storing snow onto or across public roadways, cites City Code Chapter 15 and Minn. Stat. 412.221 subd. 6, and runs a violation report line specifically reminding contractors of the restriction.
Woodbury’s approach is the tell. A city that stands up a contractor-specific reporting line has been dealing with plow operators doing this routinely.
Snow from your driveway goes onto your own yard, onto the boulevard, or — on a large or constrained property — it gets hauled off site. That is the whole list. Both cities direct residents to the yard or boulevard, and both ask that you keep fire hydrants and gas meters clear while you are at it.
The free trick, which Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Plymouth all publish and almost nobody uses: pile shoveled snow on the left side of your driveway as you face the street. The city plow travels in the direction that then carries snow past your apron rather than back across it. It costs nothing and it measurably reduces the berm you have to deal with afterward.
On that berm: Saint Paul has stated on the record that it will not remove snow deposited at driveways. With 1,874 lane miles to cover, the city’s position is that plows must stay focused on opening streets. Whether your contract includes a return pass for the apron is a question for October.
It is a fair question to put to any operator before the season, and the answer tells you whether they have thought about your property or just your driveway.
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