West Jordan, UT Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

City Code section 8-8-10(C), the Visibility Aids provision of the encroachment chapter, states that "no encroachment shall be maintained across any sidewalk area or shoulder of a public highway," and separately bars "any nature" of encroachment that "impedes, obstructs, denies or impairs the sight distance for safe pedestrian or vehicular traffic." The same subsection lets the city engineer require an encroachment that impairs visibility to be painted, fitted with reflectors, or relocated at the permittee's expense if it cannot otherwise be made safe.

The chapter's definitions in section 8-8-2 show how broadly "encroachment" reaches: stockpiled material, rubbish or earth, a fence, wall, loading platform or other structure, a planted tree or shrub, or a vehicle left in the right-of-way can all qualify. Section 8-8-10(B) separately requires anyone leaving an obstruction that could be a hazard, such as an open excavation, to keep warning lights spaced no more than 50 feet apart along it from a half hour before sunset to a half hour after sunrise until the work is finished and the right-of-way is safe again. Tampering with a barricade, light or fence protecting an excavation is itself a separate unlawful act under section 8-8-10(D). The public works department enforces the chapter under section 8-8-13, and violations carry the class B misdemeanor and per-day civil fines set out in section 8-8-17.