Roanoke County, VA Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Section 13-7(a) bars urinating or defecating on any sidewalk or street, in any public place, or anywhere other people are present, unless the act happens in a bathroom, restroom or other facility built for that purpose. The ban isn't limited to county-owned property, its reach extends to any public place and any place where others happen to be, public or private. Subsection (b) sets the penalty: a violation is a Class 4 misdemeanor. Under the county's general penalty section, § 1-10(a)(4), a Class 4 misdemeanor is punishable by a fine of not more than $250; unlike Class 1 and 2 misdemeanors, a Class 4 offense under § 1-10 carries a fine only, with no confinement in jail attached.

Section 13-7 dates to Ordinance No. 84-194, § 4, adopted November 13, 1984, and it sits among the county's other public-conduct offenses in Chapter 13, alongside trespass under § 13-10. Because § 1-10(d) treats each day a violation continues as a separate offense, a repeat or ongoing violation in the same public space could support more than one citation. County police officers enforce the ban countywide, everywhere outside the independent cities of Roanoke and Salem and the Town of Vinton, which enforce their own local codes.