An alphabetical list of towns would hide the three things that actually change a snow contract here: how much falls, who owns the road, and whether anyone is home. So the communities below are grouped the way the work differs — the city and its ring, the Old Mission Peninsula, and the Leelanau shore.
Traverse City Snow Plowing is a referral service. In every community listed here, the plowing, shoveling and salting are carried out by independent contractors under their own names and insurance; this site makes introductions and does no snow work of its own.
The snowfall gradient here runs the opposite way from what a downstate visitor expects. The tips of the peninsulas record the least, the city sits in the middle, and the interior of Leelanau County out-snows the airport by about 40%. The road map splits along the county line: Grand Traverse roads are plowed by one road commission, Leelanau roads by another, and neither plows its seasonal roads from November through April. And the share of houses that are empty in winter climbs steeply as you head up the Leelanau shore. The station-by-station detail is here.
Year-round homes, most of them owner-occupied outside the city limits, on roads the Grand Traverse County Road Commission plows. The airport’s 101.4 inches is the nearest long record for all of them.
Peninsula Township is its own case. It is 90.2% owner-occupied with a median age of 58.4, so the typical buyer is a year-round owner with a long private drive and no wish to clear it alone. It also bans short-term rentals outright, which means its second homes are genuinely empty from fall to spring with no guests allowed in them. There is no snowfall normal for the peninsula; the airport and Northport, another bay tip, are the nearest long records.
Leelanau County roads, Leelanau County Road Commission trucks, and a county where more than nine in ten households own their home and about 39% of housing is not occupied year-round. Snowfall climbs from the shoreline tips to the uplands.
| Item | Grand Traverse County | Leelanau County |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | 1,200 winter miles, 31 routes, 35–40 trucks per event | 598-mile network, 28 drivers |
| Seasonal roads | Not plowed November–April | 63 miles, not maintained November–April |
| State highways | Plowed first in its order of work | M-22 and M-72 plowed under MDOT contract |
| Mailboxes | Helps with plow impact only | Helps with plow impact only; 6′ off blacktop |
Everywhere in both counties, state law (MCL 257.677a) forbids putting driveway snow on the road. For the rules town by town, see sidewalks, parking and the street; for empty houses, second-home and vacant-property plowing; for lanes the county will not touch, seasonal and private roads; and for how contracts are priced, what it costs.
Give the address and we will tell you the county, the nearest station and the rules that apply when we match you with a contractor.
Call (231) 715-4148 Get a Season Price
Traverse City