Snow Plow Update

We recently met with three Lehi city employees from the Public Works department including the street superintendent and the plow driver whose assigned area includes our neighborhood. The meeting was very enlightening. Here are some things to be aware of:

• Lehi city has an extremely large geographic footprint. The city only has 8 plows in operation; and by law the plow drivers can only work so many hours a day before needing to switch drivers. The city’s priority is obviously to first clear the major roads. As would be expected, our neighborhood’s streets (especially the cul-de-sacs) are low on the priority list. On days when it snows and stops, we can probably expect that the plows will get to us the same day or day after. On days when it snows and continues to snow, it will likely take several days before the plows get to us because they have to keep revisiting the main roads to keep them clear of continual snow fall.
• For liability reasons, the plow drivers must push snow to the sides of the street. The same thing typically applies to cul-de-sacs (i.e. snow cannot be collected in the middle). This means that when the plows come through, your driveways will get plowed in. There’s nothing the city can do about that. It is your responsibility to clear the snow drifts at the bottom of your driveway. It is against city law to shovel or snow-blow the snow back into the street.
• Cars parked on the streets are a huge impediment to the plow drivers. This is even more so the case on cul-de-sacs because the plows are difficult to turn. The combination of making a sharp turn while pushing a large amount of snow can sometimes cause the plows to skid (no different than your car). The laws of physics apply to snow plows too. For obvious reasons, the plow drivers do not want to be responsible for totaling someone’s parked car. Due to the length of the plow blade, it becomes extremely precarious for the plow driver to maneuver between parked cars—especially in cul-de-sacs. For this reason, the plow drivers will often skip past streets or cul-de-sacs that have parked cars on them.
• It is against Lehi city law to park vehicles in the street during snowfall or anytime thereafter prior to when the plows come through. The city would prefer to not tow violators’ vehicles, but they do have the right to do so. Due to the problems we’ve had in our neighborhood, the city did come through the neighborhood this morning and place warnings on cars which have obviously been parked on the street without being moved for several days (i.e. cars still covered in snow). The warnings give the vehicle owners 72 hours to move the vehicle or be towed. So, if you have a vehicle parked on the street, be sure to check if you have a warning from the city on your windshield. If so, please move your vehicle or the city will tow you.

In conclusion, it does appear that regarding snow removal (as with many things) the squeaky gear gets the grease. As an HOA board, we have been doing a lot of “squeaking” and we believe this will help to ensure that our neighborhood gets more attention from the snow plows than it has previously. However, there are some real constraints that the city faces when it comes to snow removal. As neighbors and citizens, we need to have reasonable expectations of what can and cannot be done. Most importantly, we need to do our part by keeping our vehicles off the street. Let’s make good use of those garages and driveways we all have!

Because the streets in our neighborhood are city-owned, not HOA-owned, the HOA itself is not empowered to enforce parking. However, if you see cars parked on the streets that are causing a nuisance or in violation of any city ordinances, you can contact the Lehi Street Department at 801-836-1070 (836-1072 after hours) or, if necessary, the Lehi City police at 801-768-7110.