You Need Written City Council Permission to Put a Bench on a Reno Street

Buried in Reno's administrative code for decades sat § 8.12.030: 'No person shall place or maintain any chair, bench or permanent seat on any street, alley or sidewalk, except as provided for in Titles 4 and 5 and section 8.12.015, or as otherwise authorized by the city without first obtaining written permission from the city council.' Read that again — not a permit from a clerk or a public works department, but written permission from the City Council. To put out a chair.

It was a classic right-of-way encroachment law, the kind cities passed to keep sidewalks clear of private furniture. Exceptions existed for benches supplied by a public agency or an abutting property owner, and violation was a misdemeanor under the code's general penalty. The section was last amended by Ordinance No. 4880 in May 1998 and then just sat there, technically requiring an act of the council for every rogue bench in the city.

The freestanding bench law finally disappeared on January 22, 2025, when Reno adopted Ordinance No. 6694, restructuring Chapter 8.12 and folding §§ 8.12.012, 8.12.015 and 8.12.030 into a new, broader section governing sitting, lying, sleeping, and camping in public places. So the quirky old rule is gone — absorbed into a modern ordinance that addresses much weightier questions than where your chair goes.