Politics & Government

City Passes New Garbage Storage Ordinance

After a resident disputed a citation, the city moved forward with amending its requirements for garbage, yard waste, refuse and recyclables containers Tuesday night.

Residents now have some arguably clearer direction on how to store their trash containers after the Richfield City Council passed an ordinance redefining procedures Tuesday night.

The council , however, declined to pass an ordinance that would require screening cans. However, for not having containers placed "behind or alongside the house"—and won the argument in district court—the city was forced to define ordinance language.

The new ordinance states that storage must be behind or alongside the principal structure on the property. A diagram of the acceptable areas was presented along with the ordinance language, and is attached to this article in the photo box above.

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Have a corner lot? No worries. The street that the front of the home faces, trumps the side street. And while containers still may be seen, as long as it fits within the outlined areas of the diagram, residents are safe. Homes on alley ways were not discussed, however, one could reasonably assume the same rules would apply.

However, City Manager Steve Devich wanted it to be clear that if a home has a porch or a portion of the principal structure that protrudes in front of the home, garbage storage still must be behind the main line of the home. In the diagram above, the front door area sticks out from the rest of the home. Containers could not be stored to the side.

Find out what's happening in Richfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In an attempt to give residents time to comply, the ordinance will not be in effect until June 1, 2013.

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