Lansing, MI Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

04, 'Unsanitary actions in public places,' sits in Chapter 660, 'Offenses Relating to Property,' of the Lansing Codified Ordinances, covering the City within Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties. The text is short and direct: no person shall expectorate, urinate or defecate in any public place or upon the property of another person, except in facilities intended for such activities. 'Expectorate' means to spit, so the section actually bans three separate acts in one sentence, spitting alongside urination and defecation, whenever done somewhere other than a restroom, portable toilet or similar facility meant for the purpose.

The ban reaches both public places generally and private property belonging to someone else, so relieving oneself in an alley, a parking lot, a doorway or a stranger's yard is covered the same as doing so on a public sidewalk or in a park. The rule dates to the Code's original 1986 general offenses ordinance, No. 739, and hasn't been separately amended since. 04 violation involving a property owner's own premises can additionally support a nuisance complaint if it's part of a recurring unsanitary condition rather than a one-time incident.