St. Petersburg, FL Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

St. Petersburg City Code § 20-123 defines a "public place" broadly to include any street or highway, alley, parking lot, driveway, sidewalk, boulevard, park, beach, wharf, or pier, or any other place open to public view, but the definition specifically excludes an enclosure designated for use as a toilet or lavatory. Subsection (b)(1) makes it unlawful to urinate or defecate on any public place within the City. The same subsection reaches private property too: within a "residential district" (defined by reference to chapter 16's zoning definitions), the act is unlawful unless the property owner has given express permission and it does not create a public nuisance or otherwise violate the Code.

Within a "commercial district", defined as all other places not covered by the residential definition, urinating or defecating is unlawful unless it is done into a receptacle provided for that purpose that stores or disposes of the waste sanitarily and is enclosed from public view. Subsection (b)(2) separately bans dumping, unloading, or otherwise disposing of urine or feces on a public place, in a residential district without the owner's permission, or in a commercial district outside a designated disposal area, language aimed at portable-toilet waste and similar bulk discharges.

Subsection (c) exempts children under 11 years old and persons with physical or mental impairments who cannot control their bodily functions, but shifts responsibility for cleanup onto that person's parent, guardian, or custodian; failing to clean up and sanitarily dispose of the waste is itself a separate violation of subsection (b). The section was last amended by Ordinance No. 373-H, § 14, adopted June 13, 2019, and traces back to the 1992 Code § 20-123 and Ordinance No. 508-G of November 1, 2001.