GREENWOOD, MINNESOTA
Your driveway is cleared within 10 hours after snowfall stops. In Greenwood, where that snow ends up matters as much as how fast it moves.
Greenwood City Code Section 900.15 declares it a public nuisance to deposit snow or ice plowed or removed from private property onto a city street or other public property, and it adds a phrase that closes the usual loophole: regardless of the place of origin. It doesn't matter whether the snow fell on your drive or was left at the end of it by a street plow. Once it's on your property, it can't go back into the street.
The same section gives property owners 24 hours after snowfall stops to clear public sidewalks, and violations are misdemeanors. When the city has to clean up a nuisance, whoever caused it is personally liable for the cost.
So every Greenwood drive we plow is planned around keeping snow on the property: where it gets pushed, where it gets stacked, and when it has to be hauled out. Service runs on a 2 inch trigger, and the drive, front walk and entry steps are all included.
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1.5 million square feet of commercial lots on contract and counting, for clients including Thunderbird Aviation at Flying Cloud Airport, Holiday Inn Express and Comfort Inn.
On a small lakeside lot, the hard part of plowing isn't moving snow. It's finding a legal, sensible place to put it.
About half of Greenwood's properties sit on Lake Minnetonka. Before the first storm, we stake the drive edges and settle where the snow will be stacked, so every push has somewhere to land on your side of the property line.
Every residential truck carries rubber cutting edges, which are gentler than steel on pavers, stamped concrete and fresh asphalt.
Greenwood's code treats snow left on a public sidewalk for more than 24 hours after it stops as a public nuisance. That rule is about public sidewalks. The walk that matters most to your guests is the one from the drive to your door.
Both the front walk and the entry steps are cleared on every visit, and steps are done by hand so stone and brick don't get chipped.
A walk shoveled at dawn doesn't stay clear on its own. By late afternoon, melt from the banks runs across the pavement, and when the sun drops it sets up as a sheet of ice.
We time treatment of the drive, walk and steps to that evening refreeze, using salt from the 100 tons we store at our own shop.
Keeping all of it on your own property works until the property runs out of room. On a smaller lot, that can happen by the second big storm, and the banks start eating into the drive.
That's the point where we load the snow into trucks and haul it away, rather than breaking the rule by pushing it into the street. The drive gets its width back, and the snow is gone.
Most Greenwood driveways run $200 to $250 a month, November through April, charged as one seasonal price and billed monthly.
That covers a standard drive, up to two cars wide at about 20 feet and up to 60 feet long, which comes to roughly 1,200 square feet. Bigger drives, extra parking areas and long step runs are priced individually.
Those numbers are for the standard 2 inch trigger. Going lower means more visits and a higher price. If you'd rather pay per storm, per push service is available.
Greenwood shares the South Lake Minnetonka Police Department with Excelsior, Shorewood and Tonka Bay through a joint powers agreement, and a regional trail runs along the west side of the city. Unpaid nuisance cleanup charges can be assessed to the property and collected with the next year's taxes. Snow and nuisance rules from the City of Greenwood City Code.
Freshwater Landscaping
3425 Shoreline Dr Ste B, Wayzata, MN 55391
(612) 999-8067
Office: Mon-Sun 8am-6pm
No. City Code Section 900.15 makes it a public nuisance to deposit snow or ice from private property onto a city street or other public property, regardless of where the snow came from. Violations are misdemeanors.
Snow and ice left on a public sidewalk 24 hours after snowfall stops is a public nuisance under Section 900.15. If the city has to abate a nuisance, the code lets it recover the cost, including administrative costs.
Within 10 hours after snowfall stops, counted from the end of the storm. Your property is on the route for every snowfall that reaches the 2 inch trigger.
They're far gentler than a steel edge on pavers, stamped concrete and new asphalt, which is why every residential truck runs them. Drive edges are also staked before the freeze so crews can see where the pavement ends.
The front walk and entry steps are cleared every visit, with steps done by hand. Salting and snow hauling are available when the drive needs them.
Yes. Commercial accounts pick a trigger of 2 inch, 1 inch or half inch, or zero tolerance with crews staged on site before the snow starts. Every commercial visit is logged in Yeti with photos and time stamps.
Most Greenwood driveways run $200 to $250 a month from November through April, as one seasonal price billed monthly. Larger drives and long step runs are priced individually.
Half of Greenwood's properties are on Lake Minnetonka, and the same company that plows your drive builds and maintains lakeshore landscapes the rest of the year, from patios to shoreline restoration.
One company, one crew that knows the property, and no new vendor to find when the snow melts.
Routes fill and then we're closed. Tell us about your property and what needs clearing, and we'll get you a spot. The storm-alert checkbox is optional. Check it and you'll get a text the moment crews head out.