Paramount, CA Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Encroachment Permits (2026)

Chapter 12.08 of the Paramount Municipal Code is the City's highway permit chapter, and Section 12.08.010 is the trigger. Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who, before obtaining a permit from the County Road Commissioner, moves a building along a highway, makes an excavation, fill or obstruction of a highway, lays, constructs or repairs any curb, sidewalk, gutter, driveway, roadway surface, retaining wall, storm drain or culvert, builds or repairs a highway light system, or constructs, reconstructs, repairs or maintains any canopy. Section 12.04.010 defines highway to include any public street, public way or public place in the City, so the permit reaches the sidewalk and parkway in front of a property. It defines Commissioner as the Road Commissioner of the County or the Director of Public Works of the City or an authorized representative.

The application is in writing to the Road Commissioner (Section 12.08.020), who can add requirements that substantially aid in protecting the highway or the traveling public (Section 12.08.030). Under Section 12.08.040, every applicant other than the United States, the State, a county, a municipal corporation or another public body makes whatever deposit the Code requires and pays an issuance fee in an amount the City determines is sufficient to recover the cost of issuance. Issuance fees are nonrefundable. A permittee holding a general deposit and averaging more than 75 permits a month can ask to have prepayment waived.

Each applicant signs a statement agreeing to save the City and its officers and employees harmless from liability for accident, loss or damage resulting from the work (Section 12.08.050). Costs charged to a permittee are actual costs, including the proportionate share of salaries and wages, plus overhead not to exceed 15% of the total (Section 12.08.060). Section 12.08.080 lets the Road Commissioner set special specifications such as equipment, backfill, paving, traffic signs, hours of work, flaggers, lights and inspection. No person can obstruct the Commissioner's inspection or sampling (Section 12.08.070). Elsewhere, the zoning code lets awnings and projecting signs extend a maximum of three and one-half feet into the public right-of-way after Public Works approves an encroachment permit.