Farmington Hills, MI Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Under Sec. 14-5(f) of the city's solid waste chapter, any business, store, restaurant, office building or other nonresidential establishment that keeps a dumpster on site must screen it from the view of adjacent properties and public streets. Where existing buildings or vegetation will not do the job, the code requires installation of a wall, solid fence, berm, evergreen plantings, or a combination of these. The director of planning and community development, or a designee, reviews and approves the nature, size and extent of the screening, weighing screening-design principles adopted by the planning commission against practical constraints such as overhead wires that could block a screened location, and making sure the screening does not eliminate required parking or interfere with on-site traffic circulation.

The director may grant a temporary waiver of the screening requirement for an initial period of up to three years, renewable in further three-year increments without limit, if the adjacent property is vacant or undeveloped and the dumpster cannot be seen from occupied property, if screening would push the property into greater zoning noncompliance, if screening cannot physically be installed without violating another Code provision, or if the dumpster is visible only from LI-1 zoned property and local streets serving solely nonresidential parcels. The director may also attach reasonable conditions to any approval or waiver to further the section's intent.

Violations of Chapter 14 are enforceable by police, public services and planning and community development employees under Sec. 14-12, with penalties set by Sec. 1-13 of the Code per Sec. 14-13.