Renton, WA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

RMC 6-25-2(C) makes it a form of "pedestrian interference" to sit or lie down on a public sidewalk, or on a blanket, chair, stool, or other object placed on the sidewalk, between 7:00 a.m. and 12:00 a.m. (midnight) inside two zone categories: the Downtown Zone (area zoned Center Downtown, CD) and the Neighborhood Commercial Zones (Center Village CV, Commercial Arterial CA, and Commercial Neighborhood CN). The same chapter also bars obstructing pedestrian or vehicular traffic and aggressive begging within 25 feet of an ATM, but subsection C's sit-lie clause is the operative rule for sidewalk sitting.

Five exceptions in subsection D remove people from the ban: a medical emergency; use of a wheelchair, walker, or similar device because of a disability; operating or patronizing a sidewalk business, or attending a permitted event, under a street use permit; sitting on a bench or chair supplied by the City or an abutting property owner; and sitting within a bus stop zone while waiting for transit. No exception authorizes conduct that separately amounts to obstruction or aggressive begging.

Subsection E requires a law enforcement officer to first notify the person that the conduct violates the section; only a repeat violation after that warning is citable. A conviction is a misdemeanor as defined in RCW 9A.20.021(3). Ordinance 5635 (11-14-11) rewrote the chapter, repealing the earlier standalone sitting/lying section (former 6-25-4) and folding the rule into 6-25-2.