Daytona Beach, FL Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

City Code § 86-38(a) makes it unlawful to stand or gather, alone or with others, in a manner that knowingly obstructs a public street, highway, sidewalk or other public place or building by hindering the free passage of vehicles, traffic or pedestrians. Subsection (b) separately bars standing or gathering so as to knowingly obstruct or interfere with the free use of property or any lawfully conducted business fronting on the street, highway, sidewalk or public place. Subsection (c) puts enforcement in the hands of any police or law enforcement officer: when someone causes the conditions in (a) or (b), the officer orders that person to stop and to move on or separate sufficiently to clear traffic or restore free use of the property, and failing or refusing to obey that order is itself a violation of the section.

2045. Two related sidewalk-specific rules sit in the same division: § 86-39 requires that any gate opening onto a street or sidewalk be hung so it swings inward, never outward over the walkway, and § 86-40 bans planting or letting grow any Spanish bayonet, century plant, or other sharp-thorned or spined plant within three feet of a sidewalk or roadway, and bars letting the branch tips of such plants encroach within three feet of city sidewalks. Together these sections keep the physical sidewalk surface, the swing radius of adjoining gates, and nearby vegetation clear for pedestrian passage, distinct from the separate right-of-way excavation permit rules in Article III.