Clarksville, TN Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

Section 12-111 states that except as provided in section 11-510, no person shall obstruct any street, sidewalk, alley or other public way or portion thereof by placing thereon any goods, wares, merchandise, or any other obstruction except temporarily and while actively engaged in moving a portion of the goods, and that no person shall obstruct any public way by opening boxes or crates thereon. The rule traces to Code 1963 Section 25-12 and was amended by Ordinance No. 48-2009-10 on December 3, 2009. It sits in Chapter 12, Article II, alongside a cluster of cross-referenced provisions the code points to directly: charitable solicitation from the roadway is separately barred at Sec.

5-406, congregating on streets is addressed at Sec. 9-604, soliciting business from the roadway at Sec. 9-610, and interfering with pedestrian or vehicle traffic while handing out printed matter at Sec. 10-211. The only built-in exception is the active-movement carve-out, so a delivery driver briefly setting boxes on a sidewalk while unloading a truck is not automatically in violation, but leaving merchandise sitting out, opening crates on the sidewalk, or otherwise parking goods in the right-of-way is. Section 12-113, two sections later in the same chapter, gives the city its cleanup tool: when an unauthorized obstruction is found and the owner is unknown, cannot be located, or refuses to remove it, the city may remove the obstruction itself and bill the cost back to whoever is responsible once identified.