Spokane County, WA Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

300, the commercial zones development standards chapter, sets refuse storage as item 4 alongside required parking, storage and lighting standards for Neighborhood Commercial, Community Commercial and Regional Commercial zones. A dumpster or roll-off cannot simply sit exposed in a parking lot or side yard: it must be screened on all sides from public view and, at minimum, boxed in on three sides by a five-and-one-half-foot concrete block wall, masonry wall, or sight-obscuring fence, with a matching sight-obscuring gate left for the hauler to access and service the container.

350, where single-family and duplex residences are expressly carved out of the requirement; no such exemption exists for commercial refuse enclosures. 806 for landscaping and screening standards, so a dumpster pad has to be sited to avoid conflicting with required parking counts or landscape buffers along street frontage. Because the rule sits in the zoning code rather than the solid waste chapter, it is administered by the Spokane County Building and Planning Department through site plan and building permit review, not by the solid waste haulers or the Regional Health District.

A property owner remodeling a commercial site, adding a second dumpster, or relocating an existing enclosure needs a site plan showing the enclosure meeting the wall height and gate specifications before the county will sign off on the permit.