Lansing, MI Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Section 812.04 sits inside Chapter 812, which created the Principal Shopping District covering Lansing's downtown core and set up a nine-member Principal Shopping District Board that does business as "Downtown Lansing, Inc." under PA 120 of 1961, MCL 125.981 et seq. Subsection 812.04(a) requires a permit for peddling, street performing, charitable solicitation and "temporary encroachments" like sidewalk tables and pushcarts anywhere in the full Principal Shopping District. Subsection 812.04(b) is narrower and geographic: it bars using a bicycle, electric bicycle, skateboard, electric skateboard, scooter, electric scooter, electric personal assistive mobility device or in-line skates on the sidewalk specifically within Zone A, the district's densest retail sub-area, without a permit first.

Section 812.02(e)(3) assigns the Principal Shopping District Board the job of "issuing permits required by Section 812.04," and Section 812.05 requires that any policy the Board adopts for issuing or revoking those permits take effect only after City Council approval. The Board meets at least monthly and needs five affirmative votes to act, so a permit request outside a regular meeting can take weeks to reach a vote.

The ordinance also requires the City to post signs marking Zone A boundaries "in compliance with Section 660 of the Michigan Motor Vehicle Code, MCL 257.660," tying the local sidewalk-riding ban to a state signage standard rather than leaving the boundary unmarked. Riders passing through Zone A on the way to somewhere else, not just those stopping to do business, are covered because the text bars "use" on the sidewalk generally, with no exception for through traffic.