Cross References—As to rights-of-way usage, ch. 510; as to trees and shrubbery, ch. 515; as to posting bills on public property, §215.370.
Editor's Note: City of Clayton Complete Streets Policy as originally adopted in 2012 and most recently amended by Ord. No. 6706, 6-8-2021 is held on file in the City offices.
[CC 1970 §20-10; CC 1947 §7-18; Ord. No. 3862 §1, 1-25-1977]
The streets, alleys, public ways and public places in the City shall at all times be kept neat and clean and reasonably free from dirt, litter and rank growth in all public areas, so that the City may at all times present an orderly and attractive appearance. It shall be the responsibility of the Director of Public Works to sweep, clean and wash the streets within the City and to take such other action as required to maintain said streets in an orderly and attractive condition. The owners of all property or agents in control thereof and the tenants or occupants of all premises shall keep the sidewalks in front of and adjoining the property owned, controlled or occupied by them swept and clear of paper, dirt, mud, filth, animal or vegetable matter or any substance or article. After any fall of snow or sleet or formation of ice thereon, said owners, agents, occupants or tenants shall cause the same to be immediately removed from the sidewalk fronting or adjoining the property owned, managed or occupied by them; except that in cases of multi-family buildings with three (3) or more dwelling units, it shall be the responsibility of the owner or agent in control to comply with the requirements of this Section. The owners of all property or agents in control thereof or the tenants or occupants of all premises shall keep all grass, whether in the public right-of-way or not, mowed as required by the provisions of Chapter 220 hereof.
[CC 1970 §20-11; CC 1947 §7-19]
It shall be unlawful for any person to cause or permit to be placed, thrown or to leak or spill from a vehicle or otherwise upon any pavement or surface of any street, sidewalk, alley or public place any liquid asphalt, substance or material which might thereby be calculated to endanger, impede or inconvenience the movement of vehicles or pedestrians or render the surface of such street, sidewalk, alley or public place rough or uneven.
[CC 1970 §20-12; CC 1947 §7-21]
It shall be unlawful for any person to use any street or highway or part thereof which has been withdrawn from use by the public or to drive or attempt to drive any vehicle thereon or to remove or destroy any barricade, warning light or sign placed upon said street or highway or around or upon any obstruction or defect thereon as a protection or warning to the public.
[CC 1970 §20-13; CC 1947 §7-29; Ord. No. 4144 §1, 10-31-1980]
It shall be unlawful for any person to haul any materials or to drive any vehicle across any sidewalk, tree lawn, parkway, curb or gutter in the City without a permit therefor from the Director of Public Works. No such permit shall be issued unless the applicant therefor shall make deposit of one hundred dollars ($100.00) with the Director of Public Works to insure that no damage shall be caused to the sidewalk, curb, gutter, tree lawn, parkway or to any tree, pole, sign or property thereon in connection with such hauling or driving. The Director shall inspect the location where such hauling is to be done and after the work is completed shall repair, restore and replace any damage or loss caused thereby, the cost therefor together with an inspection and permit fee of ten dollars ($10.00) to be deducted from the deposit and the balance returned to the person making said deposit. The Director shall at once report said deposit and deductions to the Director of Finance and pay over to the City any deposits or monies so received and shall keep a permanent record of the transactions in a book kept by him/her for such purpose.
[CC 1970 §20-14; CC 1947 §7-16.1; Ord. No. 4143 §1, 10-31-1980; Ord. No. 5217 §1, 2-13-1996; Ord. No. 5218 §1, 2-13-1996; Ord. No. 6121 §1, 9-28-2010]
Whenever in connection with the construction, alteration or repair of any building or structure within the City, it shall be necessary that any temporary sidewalks occupy any street on which parking meters have been lawfully installed or where parking is necessary to gain access to the building site, the Director of Public Works may authorize the removal of the affected meters. The person(s) requesting such removal shall pay to the City an amount equal to the daily parking meter rental rate set forth in Section 350.180 of this Code.
[CC 1970 §20-25; CC 1947 §7-14; Ord. No. 4259 §1, 8-24-1982]
It shall be unlawful for any person to deposit or permit to remain on any highway, street, alley, sidewalk, parkway, tree lawn, gutter, drain or public place, except as permitted in this Article, any building material or equipment, rubbish, coal, debris, dirt piles, materials of any kind, chattels or property which might obstruct the free passage thereof or hinder traffic or persons or vehicles or which might obstruct the free passage of water in such gutter or drain. Except that items of public use may be placed upon public sidewalks in the City of Clayton under the supervision of and by direction of the Director of Public Works of the City of Clayton.
[CC 1970 §20-26; CC 1947 §7-15]
The Director of Public Works may, in his/her discretion, permit an obstruction mentioned in Section 505.060 of such materials to the extent of one-half (½) of any sidewalk and eight (8) feet of any public roadway, highway or alley if such encroachment is necessary for the proper conduct of a building operation and does not substantially inconvenience the public in the use of said sidewalks, public roadways, highways or alleys and provided that adequate temporary walkways be furnished.
[CC 1970 §20-27; CC 1947 §7-16]
Each applicant for a building permit for the construction, alteration or repair of any building or structure shall be required by the Director of Public Works, before such permit is issued, to make a cash deposit with the City with respect to the proposed work to insure that all building materials and debris occupying any sidewalk, tree lawn or public place in connection with the work will be safeguarded as required by this Article and promptly removed, that all damages will be compensated for, the provisions of this Article complied with and conditions restored equal to that existing prior to the commencement of the work. Said deposit shall be refunded after full compliance herewith subject to the deductions authorized in this Article and the inspection fees as provided in this Article. The amount of said deposit shall be one hundred dollars ($100.00). In addition, each applicant shall furnish a surety bond for the sum of three thousand dollars ($3,000.00) to extend for a period of two (2) years to guarantee full compliance herewith.
[CC 1970 §20-28; CC 1947 §7-17]
The Director of Public Works shall inspect the street, alley, sidewalk, parkway, tree lawn or public place abutting the premises and location mentioned in the application for a building permit before the work is commenced and after it is completed and shall open and clean out any gutter, drain, street, inlet or manhole that may become obstructed by the aforesaid building materials, debris, articles or materials of any kind and shall repair any damage to said street, alley, sidewalk, curbing, gutter, drive, tree lawn, parkway or public place arising out of said work and restore the same to a condition equal to that existing prior to commencement of the work, if the contractor or person responsible does not within twenty-four (24) hours after being notified remove such obstructions and make said repairs and restoration. The Director shall report the cost of such repairs and restoration made by the City and the cost thereof shall be deducted from the deposit, together with an inspection fee of five dollars ($5.00) for each inspection required to effect the above provisions.
[CC 1970 §20-29; CC 1947 §7-30.1; Ord. No. 6158 §1, 8-23-2011; Ord. No. 6224 §1, 8-28-2012]
Except as provided in Section 505.125, below, or in association with civic events sponsored or authorized by the City, it shall be unlawful for any person to place for display and sale or to sell on any public highway, street or alley in the City any groceries, provisions, magazines, newspapers, commodities, vegetables, fruit, produce, goods, wares or merchandise.
[CC 1970 §20-30; CC 1947 §7-20; Ord. No. 4821 §1, 8-27-1991; Ord. No. 6158 §1, 8-23-2011; Ord. No. 6224 §1, 8-28-2012]
Except as provided in Section 505.125, below, or in association with civic events sponsored or authorized by the City, it shall be unlawful to place for display and sale or to sell upon any public sidewalk in the City any groceries, provisions, magazines, commodities, vegetables, fruit, produce, goods, wares or merchandise, except that it shall be lawful to sell newspapers upon any public sidewalk within the City and to place for display and storage such newspapers only in boxes as provided in Section 505.140 except further, that it shall be lawful to provide food service or customer seating areas pursuant to an outdoor dining permit.
[CC 1970 §20-31; CC 1947 §7-20.1; Ord. No. 6224 §1, 8-28-2012]
Except as provided in Section 505.125, below, it shall be unlawful to place and display for sale in any storefront opening upon any public sidewalk in the City any groceries, provisions, magazines, newspapers, commodities, vegetables, fruits, produce, goods, wares or merchandise in such a manner that sales or removal of such groceries, provisions, magazines, newspapers, commodities, vegetables, fruits, produce, goods, wares or merchandise may be made directly from such storefront. Nothing contained in this Section shall prevent proper display of merchandise in any covered showcase or shop window.
[Ord. No. 6224 §1, 8-28-2012; Ord. No. 6392 §1, 10-13-2015; Ord. No. 6705, 6-8-2021]
A. 
Except as permitted by Sections 505.100 and 505.110, above, operators of food trucks, ice cream trucks, mobile barbecue or food smoking equipment and similar motorized or transportable mobile food preparation or vending equipment ("mobile food vending equipment"), other than mobile or transportable barbecue or smoking equipment used as outdoor accessory cooking equipment by and on the premises of an establishment licensed by the City to prepare and sell food at retail, may locate or operate such equipment on City rights-of-way, City property and private property only in compliance with the following requirements:
1. 
Except as otherwise permitted in this Section, mobile food vending equipment must be used solely to serve a private event not open to the general public. No operator of such equipment may sell, vend or serve to members of the public or any person not participating in the sponsoring private event. Payment for any goods provided by the operator of mobile food vending equipment must be made to the vendor by the sponsor of the event, as in the case of typical catering services; no payments may be collected by or on behalf of the vendor from consumers.
2. 
Established licensed restaurants, grocery stores, and food retailers located within the Downtown Mobile Food Vending District shown on the map below, may operate mobile food vending equipment and sell, vend or serve members of the general public only on the property on which they are located.
Figure 1: Downtown Mobile Food Vending District
3. 
Any operator of mobile food vending equipment may sell, vend or serve members of the general public within a City park only with the permission of the Department of Parks and Recreation.
4. 
Any operator of mobile food vending equipment may sell, vend or serve members of the general public outside of the Downtown Mobile Food Vending District with appropriate permits and licenses as specified in Subsections (A)(6) and (7), below, and an approved special events application sponsored by a Clayton resident, business, or property owner. For purposes of this Section, “special event" means a specific social activity of a definable duration not to exceed three (3) days occurring on or adjacent to property owned or occupied by the sponsor of the permitted special event and “sponsored by” means the applicant for the special event who is responsible for compliance with all requirements applicable to the event.
5. 
A mobile food vendor shall not vend before 8:00 A.M. or after 11:00 P.M.
6. 
Appropriate licensing shall be obtained from the Department of Finance for the operation of all mobile food vending equipment. Appropriate permits must be obtained from the Department of Public Works for any mobile food vending equipment located on any street or sidewalk and from the Department of Parks and Recreation for any mobile food vending equipment located in any City park. Any permit may specify the exact location permitted and may impose reasonable conditions to protect City property and public health and safety.
7. 
Any mobile food vending equipment must be approved by the appropriate public health agency and be configured and operated in compliance with all requirements of the Fire Safety Code of the City.
[CC 1970 §20-32; Ord. No. 4829 §1, 9-24-1991]
Temporary directional signs indicating the location of an open house for sale shall be restricted to a directional arrow and may include the word "open". Such signs shall not exceed one and one-half (1½) square feet in area and shall be of professional quality and appearance and shall be displayed only on Sundays from 12:00 P.M. until 5:00 P.M. There shall be a maximum of two (2) such separately located directional signs for each open location. The directional signs shall be located only on the public right-of-way between the sidewalk and the street curb and only with the consent of the adjacent property owner. One (1) such sign may be located at the intersection of a major street and the street leading to the location of the open house and the other such sign shall be reasonably located to indicate the location of the open house. No such sign shall be located on any public street median, public park or other open public areas including, but not limited to, street islands. All such signs must bear the name or address of the party responsible for said signs in letters not to exceed two (2) inches in height.
[CC 1970 §20-33; CC 1947 §7-14; Ord. No. 4296 §1, 6-14-1983]
Any person may, without a permit, maintain on any sidewalk in the City a box for the sale or display of newspapers if such box does not exceed in outside dimensions four (4) feet in height, two (2) feet in depth and five (5) feet in width, provided not more than two (2) of such boxes shall be placed within one hundred (100) feet of any other such box and, provided further, that the location, size and appearance of any such box shall be subject to the provisions of Article III of Chapter 400 of this Code, Architectural Review Board, of the Municipal Code of the City.
[Ord. No. 5828 §1(20-40), 6-23-2004; Ord. No. 5898 §1(20-40), 9-13-2005; Ord. No. 6915, 1-14-2025]
A. 
Definitions. As used in this Section, the following terms shall mean as follows:
ACCESSORY BUILDING
A subordinate building customarily incidental to and located on the same lot occupied by a main building, subordinate in area, extent or purposes to the main building, limited to and contributing to the comfort, convenience or necessity of the occupants of the main building. For purposes of this Section, an accessory building differs from a temporary storage device, portable on demand storage unit and storage shed in that it is constructed pursuant to a building permit and is permanently affixed to realty.
PODS
An acronym and common name for portable on demand storage units.
PORTABLE ON DEMAND STORAGE UNIT
A container designed, constructed and commonly used for non-permanent placement on property for the purpose of temporary storage of personal property.
STORAGE SHED
A prefabricated structure designed, intended and installed on property primarily for the long-term storage of yard, pool and garden equipment and similar personal property.
STORAGE TRAILERS
Includes trucks, trailers, and other vehicles or parts of vehicles designed to be hitched or attached to trucks, tractors or other vehicles for movement from place to place used as a temporary storage device.
B. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to park, place or suffer placement of a storage trailer, PODS or similar device in or upon any alley, highway, designated fire lane or sidewalk in the City of Clayton.
C. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to park, place or suffer placement of a storage trailer, PODS or similar device upon any street or roadway in the City of Clayton: (a) other than directly abutting the lot which the person using or being serviced by the item occupies; or (b) for more than three (3) consecutive days in any one (1) instance; or (c) on more than three (3) instances in any twelve (12) month period; provided, in addition, that each instance is at least thirty (30) days apart from any other instance of placement.
D. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to park, place or suffer placement of a storage trailer, PODS or similar device upon any lot or property in the City of Clayton other than on a concrete, asphalt or other improved surface.
E. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to park, place or suffer placement of a storage trailer, PODS or similar device upon any lot or property in the City of Clayton used for commercial purposes or containing three (3) or more dwelling units in such a way as to block or interfere with access to a garage or off-street parking areas.
F. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to park, place or suffer placement of a storage trailer, PODS or similar device upon any lot or property in the City of Clayton for more than seven (7) consecutive days or on more than three (3) occasions in any twelve (12) month period.
G. 
This Section shall not apply to the use or placement of construction trailers and equipment on property in association with ongoing construction activities carried out pursuant to a valid building permit, nor to the placement of accessory buildings or storage sheds.
[CC 1970 §20-34; CC 1947 §7-22]
Whenever it shall come to the attention of the Director of Public Works that any street, alley, highway, sidewalk, tree lawn, parkway or public place which has been dedicated or established according to law is in any manner obstructed or encroached upon, he/she shall present the matter to the Board of Aldermen and accompany such notice by a plat showing the location and extent of such obstruction and encroachment. Any such encroachment or obstruction is declared to be a nuisance.
[CC 1970 §20-35; CC 1947 §7-23]
The Board of Aldermen upon receiving notice that any such encroachment or obstruction exists may order the same removed and may instruct the City Attorney to prepare a written order for the removal of same which order shall be signed by the Mayor and the City Attorney and directed to the Chief of Police who shall at once proceed to execute said order.
[CC 1970 §20-36; CC 1947 §7-24]
Upon receipt of any order so signed, the Chief of Police shall give to the record owner of the property fronting or abutting upon such encroachment or obstruction (and also to the occupant, if any be found thereon) at least five (5) days' notice in writing to the effect that if said encroachment or obstruction is not removed by the time mentioned in said notice, the same will be removed by him/her at the cost and expense of said owner and that a special tax bill will be issued therefor.
[CC 1970 §20-37; CC 1947 §7-25]
If after diligent search and inquiry the Chief of Police is unable to find the record owner of said property, he/she shall immediately serve such notice by publication in at least one (1) issue of some newspaper published in the City and the notice when so published shall be directed to all owners of said property who are known to the Chief of Police and shall contain a description of the property belonging to owners who are absent or unknown.
[CC 1970 §20-38; CC 1947 §7-26]
If upon the expiration of the time mentioned in the notice the obstructions or encroachments are not removed, the Chief of Police shall proceed to remove the same and the expense of such removal shall be advanced from the general revenue of the City.
[CC 1970 §20-39; CC 1947 §7-27]
As soon as the entire expense incident to such notice and removal has been ascertained, an itemized account of the same shall be filed by the Chief of Police with the City Clerk and the entire cost thereof shall be assessed by the Board of Aldermen by ordinance in favor of the City and against the property fronting or abutting upon such encroachment or obstruction, pro rata, and special tax bills shall be issued therefor for collection in all respects as in this Chapter provided in case of sidewalk construction.