Amarillo, TX Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

Section 4-6-182 of the Amarillo Code of Ordinances makes seven categories of activity unlawful anywhere on the Public Right-of-Way, defined to include Amarillo's streets, alleys, and sidewalks. The ban covers operating tracked or lugged machinery on paved streets or alleys; hauling gravel, brick, sand, or ready-mix concrete in a way that scatters material onto the pavement; dropping or leaking gasoline, oil, or other petroleum products; discharging odorous water, sewage, wastewater, or kitchen grease onto the right-of-way; selling goods or serving food or drinks on a street, sidewalk, or alley unless permitted as a mobile food unit under section 8-5-21; and placing or storing any structure, building, vehicle, fence, wall, or other material within the right-of-way, with a narrow exemption for trees and living vegetation in the parkway.

The section also bars casting or storing animals, garbage, trash, refuse, or debris into a street, alley, sidewalk, or street gutter. A related provision, section 4-6-181, requires anyone with a right-of-way permit to barricade obstacles under the Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, and makes clear that any obstruction placed without following that barricading rule is itself unlawful, with each day the obstruction remains counted as a separate offense. Section 4-6-183 layers on a maintenance duty: owners, tenants, and occupants must keep the gutters, sidewalks, alleys, and easements next to their property free of litter, clogging debris, weeds, and trash, and must maintain the strip of land between the property line and the curb, or the first ten feet toward the street where no curb exists. Together these sections give Code Enforcement and Public Works the authority to order encroaching structures, parked equipment, and stored materials removed from Amarillo's rights-of-way.