St. Martin Parish, LA Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

The rule sits in Chapter 32, Roads and Bridges, of the St. Martin Parish Code of Ordinances, and it reaches the owner of any property abutting a parish road in unincorporated St. Martin Parish. The reach is broad: trees, shrubs, structures 'or anything whatsoever' are covered, and the test is whether the item extends over or onto the right-of-way so as to endanger or inconvenience orderly public passage. Chapter 32 does not use the word sidewalk. What it regulates is the parish road right-of-way itself, so a limb hanging into the travel lane, a structure built into the right-of-way and a hedge crowding the road edge all fall under the same sentence.

The enforcement path is spelled out in four steps. First, where necessary, the designated parish official notifies the owner of the property on which the offending matter sits, in writing, by registered mail. Second, the owner has ten days either to remove the matter from the right-of-way or to signify approval in writing that the parish, on the owner's behalf, remove it. Third, if ten days from receipt of the notice pass with no removal and no consent, the parish itself removes the matter or has it removed. Fourth, the official mails a copy of Sec. 32-1 with the registered letter. The section does not say who pays for a parish removal.

Two neighboring sections cover related blockages. Sec. 22-12 bars intentionally parking a motor vehicle so as to obstruct the entrance or exit to driveways on roads owned or maintained by the parish council, and Sec. 32-5 makes it unlawful to use the public roads of the parish as a turn row or headland or to plow any part of them. St. Martinville, Breaux Bridge, Henderson and Parks govern their own streets and sidewalks under their own codes, so this section does not reach them.