S 4941: Amends the provision requiring owners, lessees or tenants to remove any obstructions in front of fire hydrants to require the New York city department of sanitation to remove any snow or ice accumulation in front of any such fire hydrants.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4941 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE February 14, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Cities 1 AN ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the department of sanitation to remove any snow or ice accumulation in front of fire hydrants The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 15-205 of the administrative code of the city of 2 New York, as amended by local law number 149 of the city of New York for 3 the year 2016 and paragraph 2 of subdivision b as amended by local law 4 number 80 of the city of New York for the year 2020, is amended to read 5 as follows: 6 § 15-205 Obstruction of fire hydrants. a. For the purposes of this 7 section, the term "fire hydrant street area" means, with respect to a 8 fire hydrant, any space that is located: 9 1. In a street; and 10 2. Between the center of such street and a line that (i) is 20 feet in 11 length, (ii) has such hydrant at its center point and (iii) runs paral- 12 lel to the curb nearest such hydrant. 13 b. 1. It shall be unlawful in any manner to obstruct the use of any 14 fire hydrant, or to throw or pile, or allow any snow or ice or other 15 material or thing to be thrown or piled (i) upon a fire hydrant, (ii) 16 within two feet of a fire hydrant or (iii) within a fire hydrant street 17 area. All material or things found obstructing any fire hydrant [may be 18 forthwith] shall be removed by the officers or employees of the depart- 19 ment, at the risk, cost and expense, of the [owner, lessee or tenant of 20 the premises fronting such hydrant] department of sanitation. 21 2. No newsstand may be located within ten feet from either side of a 22 fire hydrant, except that this prohibition shall not apply to any news- 23 stand which was first licensed by the department of consumer and worker 24 protection before August 1, 1979, where the person who held the license EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD05994-01-5 
 S. 4941 2 1 for such newsstand on August 1, 1991 continues to be the licensee for 2 such newsstand; provided, however, that where a newsstand which was 3 first licensed before August 1, 1979 is reconstructed in its entirety or 4 in substantial part, which reconstruction was commenced on or after 5 August 1, 1991, such newsstand shall be subject to such prohibition. 6 c. All snow and ice accumulating within a space identified in para- 7 graph 1 of subdivision b of this section shall be removed by the [owner, 8 lessee or tenant of the premises fronting such space within four hours 9 after the snow ceases to fall, except that (i) such owner, lessee or 10 tenant shall not be required to remove snow and ice from the fire 11 hydrant street area or from the property of such owner, lessee or tenant 12 and (ii) the time between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. shall not be included 13 in the aforementioned period of four hours] department of sanitation. 14 d. Notwithstanding section 15-216, a violation or knowing violation of 15 this section shall be punishable in the same manner as a violation of 16 subdivision a of section 16-123, except that a knowing violation of 17 subdivision b of this section may in addition be punishable by imprison- 18 ment not to exceed one day. 19 e. In addition to the department, the department of sanitation may 20 enforce the provisions of this section. 21 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.