Washington County, UT Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Encroachment Permits (2026)

Section 7-4-3(E) closes out the 'Obstructions; Encroachments' section of Chapter 4, the county's Snow and Ice Removal ordinance (Ord. 2024-1248, effective January 16, 2024). It states plainly that unless a current encroachment permit has been obtained for a specific permitted activity in the public road or right-of-way, it is unlawful for any private person or entity to remove snow or ice from county roadways. In practical terms, a resident, contractor, or homeowners' association cannot send a plow or loader onto a county-owned road to move snow or ice on its own initiative; that is county Public Works' job under section 7-4-1's priority system, and doing it privately without an encroachment permit is itself a code violation.

The permit requirement is separate from, and layered on top of, the general prohibition on obstructing the road with parked vehicles or trash containers found in section 7-4-3(C), and from the private-road duty in section 7-4-2, which never obligates the county to plow private property in the first place. Because Chapter 4 carries a single catch-all penalty provision, section 7-4-6, any violation of the encroachment-permit requirement in section 7-4-3(E), like any other violation of the snow and ice removal chapter, is a class C misdemeanor, independent of whatever removal, impound, or administrative fee liability the same conduct might also trigger under section 7-4-3(D).