Yakima, WA Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Yakima Municipal Code § 6.55.040 states plainly: it is unlawful for any person to urinate or defecate in any public place or place open or available to the public, other than in a facility designed or provided for that purpose. The prohibition sits inside Chapter 6.55, Offenses Against Public Decency and Morality, alongside the city's offensive-exposure and lewd-conduct bans, and it reaches anywhere the code's own definition of "public place" covers: any location open to the common and general use, participation, or enjoyment of the public where the public is present or likely to be present, or any location where a person may reasonably be expected to be observed by the public, expressly including places open for business or commercial purposes (YMC § 6.55.010). That sweeps in streets, sidewalks, parks, parking lots and store premises, not just city-owned property; the only carve-out in the text is relieving oneself inside a bathroom or similar facility built for the purpose.

Section 6.55.040 has an unusual paper trail: it began as § 6.04.360, adopted by Ordinance 3386 § 1 in 1990, was amended by Ordinance 93-59 § 1 in 1993, and was recodified to its current number, 6.55.040, by Ordinance 2015-021 § 9 in 2015 when the city reorganized its public-safety title. The section itself designates a violation a misdemeanor without stating a specific fine, so the penalty comes from Title 6's general penalty clause, YMC § 6.02.050(A): unless a chapter fixes a different punishment, a misdemeanor is punishable by up to ninety days in jail, a fine of up to one thousand dollars, or both. There is no lesser civil-infraction track written into this section, unlike some neighboring Chapter 6.75 offenses.