Nicholasville, KY Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

Section 19-13(a) is a broad ban on obstructions. No person shall place, throw, deposit, allow to accumulate or grow, or cause to be erected or placed on any street, alley, sidewalk, pathway, gutter or other public right-of-way, easement or public property a long list of things: buildings, brick mailboxes, columns, rubbish, garbage, furniture, signs, large rocks or boulders, fences, posts, stakes, weeds, inoperative or unlicensed motor vehicles, junk or scrap metal, abandoned property, and any other obstruction or encroachment of any nature. The catch-all reaches any item that can do injury to a person, animal or property, or that can impede or hinder use by persons with disabilities or anyone else traveling on the street, alley, sidewalk or public property. Premises authorized for such purposes are excepted.

Subsection (b) gives the city self-help power. Items in violation of sections 19-1 through 19-13 found on city streets, sidewalks, public ways, public or private drainage areas or other public property can be removed immediately by the city without notice to the property owner. Public utility infrastructure is allowed. The section was last amended by Ord. No. 137-2023, adopted 1-8-24.

Neighboring sections add owner duties. Under § 19-7, owners must keep abutting sidewalks free from grass, weeds and obstructions of all kinds. Under § 19-8, a police officer who learns a sidewalk is overgrown or obstructed notifies the owner and orders it cleared, and an owner who fails to comply within five days is guilty of a misdemeanor. Section 19-9 makes it unlawful to let snow or ice remain on a sidewalk longer than twenty-four hours from the time the snow falls or the ice becomes frozen. Section 19-4 separately requires an express permit from the city commission for any wall, fence, retaining wall or other obstruction on public ways, and a complaint brings a show-cause hearing and a thirty day removal order.