Washington County, WI Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

Washington County Code § 157-8, Highway encroachments or obstructions, protects the right-of-way along every county trunk highway, the travel lanes plus the shoulders, ditches and setback strip the County controls for road purposes. Subsection A prohibits any person from causing an encroachment upon, under or over that right-of-way with a fence, stand, building or any other structure or object, and the prohibition reaches encroachments that arise later, after the public acquires a new or wider right-of-way through an existing property. Subsection B separately bars placing any foreign substance in a highway that is or may be injurious to a vehicle or its parts, covering debris, spilled material or anything else that could damage tires, wheels or undercarriages.

Once the County Highway Commissioner determines an encroachment exists, § 157-8A lets the Commissioner have it removed under the procedure at § 86.04, Wis. Stats., the state law governing obstruction of highways. No penalty amount is written into § 157-8 itself, so a violation falls back to the Chapter 1 standard penalty at § 1-5: a forfeiture of not less than $10 nor more than $2,000 plus the costs of prosecution, and, if the forfeiture and costs go unpaid, imprisonment in the County Jail not to exceed 90 days. Because Washington County has no general zoning ordinance, this right-of-way rule, not a municipal sidewalk code, is what reaches structures and debris placed along county roads through the unincorporated towns.