Local Ordinances
Below are some of the local ordinances that are in effect within the City of Erie.
For more information or a full list of Local Ordinances, click HERE .
§ 701.01 Compliance with police order.
No person shall refuse or fail to comply with any lawful order of a police officer.
No person shall intentionally create any false fire alarm.
Whoever, in any manner, aids, abets, instigates or encourages any other person to violate any ordinance shall be subject to the same penalties as the principal.
§ 704.01 Consumption in motor vehicle; discarding containers.
No person shall:
(a) Consume an alcoholic beverage of any kind or description, as defined by the Liquor Control Board of Pennsylvania, while in or on a vehicle which is moving, parked, stopped or standing on any street, roadway or other public way in the City; or for the driver, owner or person in control of any vehicle to permit any person or persons to drink intoxicating liquor or fermented malt beverages therein or thereon, while the same is being driven, or is stopped, standing or parked on any street, roadway or other public way in the City.
(b) Break, leave, discard or deposit in any manner any glass, bottle, glassware, can or container of any kind, make or description on any public street, sidewalk, parks, parking area or public places of any nature within the limits of the City except in designated containers.
§ 705.01 Disorderly conduct defined.
It shall constitute the offense of disorderly conduct for any person to disturb the good order and quiet of the City by clamor or noise, by intoxication and drunkenness, or by fighting and using obscene, profane or indecent language on the sidewalks, streets or in any public place or building in the City, to the annoyance of any of its residents, or to endanger or violate the public peace in any other manner by indecent or disorderly conduct, whether such conduct directly disturbs the tranquility of the City or consists in abusing, insulting, beating, striking, threatening to fight, provoking to quarrel or any other unlawful act against the person or property of any individual, detrimental to the public peace, or lewd, lascivious behavior tending to subvert good order.
§ 706.01 Presence or participation in disorderly house prohibited.
No individual shall be knowingly present and/or participating in an ill-governed or disorderly house or place wherein gambling or drinking is occurring when the same constitutes a common nuisance or disturbance to the neighborhood or orderly citizens.
§ 709.02 Physical endurance contests.
No person shall promote, manage, conduct or participate in any physical endurance contest, dance or other act which lasts 48 hours or more, with allowance for rest periods, in any public hall or building in the City.
No owner or lessee of any building, dance hall or auditorium shall permit such a physical endurance in any public building, hall or auditorium.
§ 711.01 Committing public indecency; exception.
(a) A person who knowingly or intentionally does any of the following in a public place commits public indecency, a summary offense:
(1) Engages in sexual intercourse;
(2) Engages in deviate sexual intercourse as defined by the Pennsylvania Crimes Code;
(3) Appears in a state of nudity; or
(4) Fondles the genitals of himself, herself or another person.
(b) The prohibition set forth in Subsection (a)(3) hereof shall not apply to:
(1) Any child under 10 years of age; or
(2) Any individual exposing a breast in the process of breastfeeding an infant under two years of age.
§ 713.01 Prohibited places for posting advertisements.
No person shall post, stick, stamp, paint or otherwise fix, or cause the same to be done by any person, any notice, placard, bill, card, poster, advertisement or other paper or device, calculated to attract the attention of the public, to or upon any sidewalk, crosswalk, curb or curbstone, flagstone or any other portion or part of any public way or public place, or any lamppost, electric light, telegraph or telephone pole, railway structure, hydrant, shade tree or tree box, or upon the piers, columns, trusses, girders, railings, gates or other parts of any public bridge or viaduct or other public structure or building, or upon any pole, box or fixture of the fire alarm or police telegraph system, except such as may be authorized or required by the laws of the United States or the State, and the ordinances, rules and regulations of the City.
§ 713.02 Posting advertisements declared nuisance.
The posting, sticking, stamping, painting or otherwise affixing, or causing the same to be done, of any notice, placard, bill, card, poster, advertisement or other paper or device calculated to attract the attention of the public to or upon any sidewalk, crosswalk, curb or curbstone, flagstone or other portion or part of any public way or public place, or on any lamppost, electric light, telegraph or telephone pole, railway structure, hydrant, shade tree or tree box, or upon the piers, columns, trusses, girders, railings, gates or other parts of any public bridge or viaduct or other public structure or building, or upon any pole, box or fixture of the fire alarm or police telegraph system, except such as may be authorized or required by the laws of the United States or the State, and the ordinances, rules and regulations of the City, are declared to be a nuisance.
§ 713.03 Littering with advertisements.
(a) No corporation, partnership, firm, association or other entity, its agents, servants, employees or representatives, or person shall cast or place in the streets of the City, or upon pavements, sidewalks or footways thereof, or into vestibules, yards or upon the porches of any dwelling or other outbuilding within the City, any papers, advertisements, handbills, circulars, wastepapers or sample of any description without lawful authority or consent, express or implied from the owner. No corporation, partnership, firm, association or other entity, its agents, servants, employees or representatives, or person, other than the owner, shall affix or attach to the doors, walls, windows, columns, trusses, railings, gates, fences, lamp posts, decorative fixtures of any kind or any other part of any dwelling or any outbuilding within the City, any papers, advertisements, handbills, circulars, wastepapers or samples of any description, without lawful authority or consent, express or implied from the owner. Nothing herein contained shall be held to apply to newspapers, mailed matter or addressed envelopes, or signs indicating the availability of property for sale or rent.
(b) Every corporation, partnership, firm, association or other entity, its agents, servants, employees or representatives, or any individual engaging in the business or practice of distributing advertisement door to door in the City shall include in their deliveries a notice advising the recipients of such advertisements that they may request that such deliveries be canceled. Such notice shall contain the name and address of the entity or individual making the distribution and the telephone number where the request for cancellation can be made. No corporation, partnership, firm, association or other entity, its agents, servants, employees or representatives, and no individual shall make further deliveries of advertisements to the property of any resident of the City once that resident has requested that delivery be stopped.
(c) No corporation, partnership, firm, association or other entity, its agents, servants, employees or representatives, nor any person, shall enter into or onto any building or improved real estate for the purpose of depositing any material, substance, refuse or other article or thing whatsoever without lawful authority or consent, express or implied from the owner.
(d) All persons making deliveries to residents of the City, whether employed by a private firm, government agency or government supported corporation, including letter carriers, shall use sidewalks or accepted and approved walkways when making deliveries and shall refrain from traversing lawns or other private property not normally used as a walkway by the general public.
§ 713.04 Posting political campaign signs.
(a) Definitions. Unless it appears from the context that a different meaning is intended, the following words shall have the meanings given them in this section:
(1) CITY — The City of Erie, Pennsylvania.
(2) DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS — The Director of Public Works of the City of Erie, Pennsylvania.
(3) PERSON — Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind.
(4) POLITICAL CAMPAIGN SIGN — Any bill, poster, placard, handbill, flyer, painting, sign or other similar object in any form whatsoever which contains written or printed matter in words, symbols or pictures or any combination thereof.
(b) Posting on public right-of-way prohibited. It is unlawful for any person to post a political campaign sign on or over any public property in the City.
(c) Posting time limits. It is unlawful for any person to post a political campaign sign more than 90 days prior to an election for which the sign is posted and to fail to remove a political campaign sign within 30 days after the election for which the sign was posted.
(d) Removal of illegal signs. The Director of Public Works, or his authorized agents, shall remove any political campaign sign found posted within the City limits that is in violation of this section.
(e) Authority of Public Works Director. For the purpose of removing political campaign signs, the Director of Public Works, or his authorized agents, are empowered to enter upon the property where the signs are posted, and the Director is further empowered to enlist the aid or assistance of any other department of the City and to secure legal process to the end that all such signs shall be expeditiously removed from any property where posted in violation of this section.
(f) Removal procedure. When the Director or his agents shall find that a political campaign sign has been posted in violation of this section, he shall attempt to contact the candidate, committee or person responsible for posting such sign. If successful, he shall give 24 hours advance telephonic notice of his intention to remove the sign, indicating the nature of the violation and the location of the sign. If, after such notification, the illegal sign remains in violation, the Director or his agents shall remove such sign and store it in a safe location. If, after reasonable diligence, the Director is unable to contact the candidate, committee or person responsible for the sign, he may dispense with the notice requirement and remove the sign, storing it in a safe place.
(g) Storage, notice and return. If the Director or his agents remove any political campaign sign, he shall keep a record of the location from which the sign was removed. He shall store the sign in a safe place for at least 90 days, and shall immediately notify by telephone the candidate, committee or person responsible for the posting of the sign, indicating the fact of removal and the location where it may be retrieved. If the Director is unable to make telephone contact, he shall provide written notice, if the address of the candidate, committee or person is known or can be ascertained. The Director shall return any political campaign sign upon the payment of $5 for each sign, to cover the costs of removal, notice and storage.
(h) Sign removal charge. The City shall be entitled to receive the sum of $5 for every political campaign sign removed by the Director to cover the expenses of removal, notice and storage. In cases where unusual effort is needed to remove a sign, such as the cutting or removal of supporting structures, use of aerial devices, towing of trailer signs, or other unusual situation, the City shall collect from the person responsible a sum sufficient to cover the costs and hourly wages of the employees so utilized.
(i) Persons responsible. In a campaign for political office, the candidate for such office shall be deemed responsible for the posting of his political signs, unless he first notifies the City Clerk and the Director that another person is responsible. In such case, the candidate shall provide the name, address, telephone number and signed consent of such other responsible person. In a campaign regarding a ballot measure, the president of the committee supporting or opposing such ballot measure shall be deemed responsible, unless he first notifies the City Clerk and Director of some other person responsible in the manner herein described. The candidate, or in the case of a ballot measure, the committee president, or other responsible person if so designated, shall be liable to pay any fees or costs for the removal and storage of such illegal signs, as set forth herein. Further, such candidate, committee president or other responsible person shall be subject to criminal prosecution for violation of this section.
(j) Illegal signs a public nuisance. Political campaign signs posted in violation of this section are hereby declared to be a public nuisance and may be abated by the City. The collection of removal fees shall not preclude the City from criminally prosecuting any person in violation of this section.
So long as marijuana shall be listed as a controlled substance in the "Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act," 1972, April 14, P.L. 233, No. 64, § 1 et seq., 35 P.S. §§ 780-101 et seq., no person shall be in possession of a small amount of marijuana and/or possession of drug paraphernalia as defined in said Act.
§ 715.01 Malicious destruction of property.
(a) No person shall voluntarily and maliciously break, remove, destroy or deface any sign or any part of any dwelling, store, plant, factory, bridge, fence or other building or enclosure not his own.
(b) No person shall cut, break or in any manner injure or deface any seats or benches or parts thereof located on any of the public grounds of the City, or any of the fences surrounding such grounds.
(c) No person shall in any manner injure or deface any fountains, fixtures, statues or embankments on public grounds, nor shall any person disturb the proper operation of public fountains.
No person shall in any way mutilate or destroy any fruit, shade or ornamental tree, shrub or flower on public property.
§ 717.01 Snow and ice to be removed from sidewalks.
It shall be the duty of the occupant of any dwelling, tenement, store, storehouse, shop, garage, factory or other building fronting on any paved or unpaved sidewalk in any public street or around the public parks in the City, and of the person having the charge or care of any church, schoolhouse or any public building situate as aforesaid, to remove or cause to be removed all snow, ice or sleet from the sidewalk, whether paved or unpaved, in front of the respective premises within three hours after the same shall have ceased to fall or form thereon, unless such ice or snow is so hardened or frozen that it cannot be removed without injury to the sidewalk, in which case the walk shall be kept sprinkled with sand or sawdust to make the surface of the sidewalk safe, but the ice must be removed as soon as it is possible to do so.
When a building has two or more occupants, the duty of cleaning the sidewalks, as aforesaid, shall devolve upon the occupant of the ground floor. If such ground floor occupants number two or more, each such occupant shall clean the sidewalk immediately in front of his respective portions of the building, together with one-half of the space, if any, intervening between such portion and that of the next adjoining occupant.
Occupants of corner buildings shall clean the sidewalk in front thereof, and also on the sides for the distance back from the corner their occupancy may extend. Sidewalks in front of and at the side of vacant lots or vacant buildings shall be cleaned as aforesaid by the owners of such vacant lots or buildings.
When the owner in any such case is a nonresident, it shall be the duty of the agent of such owner to remove the snow, ice or sleet as aforesaid. In the event of failure, the City will have the snow removed at the expense of the owner of the land. In all cases, the snow, ice or sleet shall, when removed from sidewalks, be thrown toward the outside of the sidewalk and into the roadway.
§ 717.02Depositing snow on roadway prohibited.
No person shall remove snow, ice or sleet from private property or driveways and deposit same on the roadways of the City.
§ 725.01 Air guns, etc.; sale to minors prohibited.
No person shall sell, offer or expose for sale within the City to any minor under 18 years of age any air rifle or air pistol, commonly known as a B-B gun, slingshot or any similar device.
§ 725.02 Possession by minor prohibited.
No minor under 18 years of age shall use, or possess with the intent to use, within the City any air rifle or air pistol, commonly known as a B-B gun, slingshot or any similar device.
§ 725.03 Permitting minor to use prohibited.
No person owning or having in his custody any of the aforesaid devices shall permit any minor under 18 years of age to use the same within the City.
§ 725.04 Seizure and destruction of weapons.
The Chief of Police is authorized to seize, remove and destroy any of the aforesaid devices which may be used or discharged within the City by any minor under 18 years of age, or which may be found in his possession with intent to be used within the City.
§ 725.05 Firearms discharge prohibited.
No person shall discharge any firearm or air rifle from or across any street or public land or any public place, except on a properly constructed target range.
§ 736.02Prohibited conduct associated with recreational motor vehicles
No person shall:
(a) Operate a recreational motor vehicle on any City-owned and/or controlled property located in residential and transitional use districts, including public school grounds, park property, playgrounds and recreational areas.
(b) Enter and operate a recreational motor vehicle on land not his own without the written or oral permission of the owner, occupant or lessee of the land, except where otherwise allowed by law. Written permission may be given by a posted notice which specifies the kind of vehicles allowed, such as "Recreational Vehicles Allowed," "Trail Bikes Allowed," "All-Terrain Vehicles Allowed" or words substantially similar.
(c) Operate a recreational motor vehicle carelessly or heedlessly in disregard of the rights or the safety of others or in any manner which endangers or is likely to endanger any person or property.
(d) Operate a recreational motor vehicle in excess of 25 miles per hour on publicly owned land.
(e) Operate a recreational motor vehicle within 150 yards of a gathering of people.
(f) Post, alter, mutilate or remove any notice or sign relating to recreational motor vehicles on property in which he has no legal interest.
(g) Enter or leave the lands of another with a recreational motor vehicle, or pass from one portion of those lands to another, through a closed gate, without returning the gate to its original position. No person shall enter or leave the lands of another with a recreational motor vehicle by cutting a wire or tearing down or destroying a fence.
(h) Operate a recreational motor vehicle in a manner so as to create loud, unnecessary or unusual noise so as to disturb or interfere with the peace and quiet of other persons.
(i) Operate a recreational motor vehicle upon any sidewalk or pedestrian way in the City.
§ 737.02 Prohibitions of Loitering in Aid of Drug Offenses
(a) No person, with purpose to commit or aid the commission of a drug abuse offense, shall loiter in any public place, and do any of the following:
(1) Repeatedly beckon, stop, attempt to stop, or engage passers-by or pedestrians in conversation; or
(2) Repeatedly stop or attempt to stop motor vehicles; or
(3) Repeatedly interfere with the free passage of other persons.
(b) No person, with purpose to commit or aid the commission of a drug abuse offense, shall loiter in any public place.
§ 741.02 Prohibition of Driving with Hand Held Mobile Phones
No person shall use a mobile telephone or wireless communication device in any way, including for voice communication, messaging, e-mailing, or internet activity while operating a motor vehicle, bicycle or other vehicle on any street, road or highway within the City of Erie, with the exception of:
(a) Persons using such a device entirely in a hands-free mode for voice communication, including dialing without the use of either hand.
(b) Persons using a mobile telephone to call "911" for emergency assistance, or to report a traffic accident or unsafe driving by another motorist, although effort should be made to exit moving traffic before calling if such can be done prompt and safely under the circumstances.
(c) Persons using a mobile telephone or wireless communication device while maintaining a motor vehicle in a stationary position in a parking lane or space out of moving traffic lanes, and not in gear.
(d) No person shall be convicted of a violation of this article unless the person is also convicted of a violation of law involving a moving vehicle committed at the same time as the use of a hand-held mobile phone.
