Remind holiday visitors of street-sweeping days

Published on November 08, 2023

Family and friends visiting Lakewood over the holidays may be unfamiliar with Lakewood’s parking and street-sweeping schedules and regulations that help keep neighborhoods clean and safe for everyone.

Help your visitors enjoy a joyful celebration and avoid tickets by sharing these tips:

• For Thanksgiving, there will be no residential street sweeping on Thursday or Friday, Nov. 23-24, and no street-sweeping related tickets will be issued those two days. However, street sweeping will be normal on Monday through Wednesday, Nov. 20-22, so be sure early visitors know where they can safely park on those three days to avoid getting cited. Street sweeping and enforcement will resume Monday, Nov. 27.
  
  
• For December and early January, street sweeping will be as usual on Dec. 18-22 and Dec. 26-29, but no street sweeping on Dec. 25 or Jan. 1, and no makeup sweeps. No street-sweeping related parking enforcement from Dec. 26-Jan. 5, but please ask visitors to park vehicles off the street for a clean sweep. Sweeping and enforcement will resume on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. 

• On your street-sweeping day only, parking is allowed on the front and side lawns.

• Any day, parking is allowed on the apron, which is the sloped area between the street and the sidewalk leading up to your driveway, as long as the vehicle does not overhang the sidewalk.

• Don’t obstruct or overhang onto the sidewalk. When parking in your driveway or on the apron any day of the week, including street-sweeping day, it is important to NOT obstruct or overhang onto the sidewalk. That creates a dangerous obstruction for pedestrians and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state parking laws.

• Citations are issued only when a vehicle is immediately in the way of the sweeper. (Parking enforcement vehicles follow directly behind the sweeper.) That means you can park on the street before and after the sweeper passes your home during the posted times in your neighborhood.

• Help get a clean sweep by keeping the path clear. Don’t make leaf piles or leave trash in the street. Put small fallen branches into your green waste cart if you can. Remove larger branches from the street if you can.

In case of rain

Street sweeping is cancelled when city staff determines it is raining enough that water is pooling or flowing in gutters throughout a neighborhood, which prevents effective sweeping. (Sweeping still occurs during a light sprinkle.)

In the case of a rain cancellation, sweeping in that neighborhood is postponed until the regular sweeping day the following week. For example, the cancellation of a Friday sweep means the next sweep in that neighborhood is the following Friday. No sweeping-related parking citations are issued on rain cancellation days.

Check our website, call or email customer service to verify if sweeping has been cancelled due to rain.