West Bloomfield, MI Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

Sec. 13-106 lays out twelve numbered standards for composting on residential property. Each compost bin is capped at one hundred sixty cubic feet in volume and five feet in height unless the director of planning and development services approves a larger bin after finding the size and location will not be objectionable to area residents, and no lot may hold more than two bins. Bins generally cannot sit on a vacant lot unless that lot is owned in common with an adjacent, improved lot, and every pile or bin must be maintained to prevent rodent harborage and the anaerobic conditions that cause odor; only yard waste and household compostables may go in, and depositing garbage or refuse in a bin is itself a violation.

Placement follows several setbacks: a bin must sit back from any public street or thoroughfare at least as far as the house itself is set back, subject to zoning; in a rear yard (front yard for lakefront lots) it must clear three feet from any lot line and ten feet from a rear line abutting a neighbor's side yard; in an interior side yard it needs ten feet from an abutting neighbor's side yard; and no bin may sit within twenty-five feet of a wetland, floodplain, watercourse or other natural water feature, or on a recorded drainage easement or swale. Sec. 13-107 gave existing nonconforming bins only until December 1, 1993 to come into compliance, and Sec. 13-110 declares noncompliant composting a nuisance outright.