Lakeville, MN Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Encroachment Permits (2026)

Lakeville's Encroachments Generally provision, City Code section 7-17-1, is the City's general bar on private use of land it owns or controls for public infrastructure. It reaches two kinds of activity: land disturbance activities, and erecting or placing any improvements, materials, structure, or building on City-owned easements, rights-of-way, parcels, lots, or outlots. Unlike the City's chapter 15 right-of-way management permits, which cover utility and telecommunications facilities excavating or occupying a right-of-way, section 7-17-1 does not create a standing administrative permit application for a homeowner's fence, retaining wall, driveway apron, or landscaping that would sit on a City easement or right-of-way.

Instead, the only path to a lawful encroachment is either an allowance elsewhere in the City Code, such as the separate permit chapters for filling, excavating in wetlands, or right-of-way occupancy, or a written agreement that the City Council itself must approve. That places the decision with the elected Council rather than with staff acting under a fee schedule, so residents seeking to encroach on City property, for example to keep a shed or landscaping feature on a platted easement, need to bring the request to the Council for a negotiated agreement rather than filing a permit application.

The section was last amended by Ordinance 1107 on July 21, 2025, one of the more recently revised provisions in Title 7, Public Ways And Property.