Fines can be imposed on East Lansing residents living in houses for neglecting to remove the snow and ice on their sidewalks directly after snowfall.

City residents must remove snow within 24 hours of snowfall and mitigate ice hazards within 12 hours of forming, or they can be ticketed, said Angela Mabin, East Lansing’s public service administrator.

“Even if students are gone for the weekend, it’s still their responsibility,” she said.

Failure to remove snow and ice is a civil infraction, which carries an $85 fine, according to the East Lansing’s 54-B District Court. The ordinance is carried out by Parking and Code Enforcement, or PACE.

No tickets were issued during Monday’s snowstorm because most of the snow disappeared within 24 hours, PACE supervisor Eldon Evans said.

The city’s Department of Public Works removes snow on major school sidewalk routes on school days as a courtesy, but it’s the home occupant’s responsibility to keep the pathway clear.

While all homeowners are responsible for snow and ice removal, not all tenants leasing their houses bear the responsibility, Mabin said.

“It’s about the arrangement that the building owner and the tenants have made,” she said. “In some buildings, it’s the owner who is responsible, and in other buildings it’s the tenant’s responsibility. It’s whatever has been worked out.”

Community Resource Management Company, or CRMC, East Lansing’s second-largest real estate company, is responsible for snow and ice removal for multifamily residential units but not for single-family units, CRMC maintenance supervisor Wayne Hiner said.

CRMC is in the process of modifying this policy, he said.

“We’re changing the way we handle that,” Hiner said. “We’re in the process of maintaining all the sidewalks to minimize the number of tickets issued to tenants for not taking care of the snow and ice removal.”