City officials hope to prevent plethora of portable toilets

COEUR d'ALENE — The city of Coeur d'Alene's Planning Commission unanimously made an ordinance recommendation that will keep the locations, maintenance and use of Porta Potties in check.

Previously, the city didn't really have an ordinance that regulated Porta Potties, or portable toilets. The only code that had been on the books was City Code 13.12.010, which addressed restrictions on "privies," or outhouses located in some kind of building.

"No person or persons shall construct or maintain any privy in the city; provided, however, that temporary privies may be constructed during the course of construction of any building and at a place and in a manner approved by the city engineer," the code reads.

This minimalistic code and language began to be examined by the city and the planning commission in January.

"A question came forward and we started digging through the ordinance and we don’t have anything, other than something that talks about ‘privies,’ whatever a privy is," said planning commissioner Jon Ingalls.

Community planning director Hilary Anderson said the city was approached about the subject by Crafted Taphouse, which inquired about having a seasonal Porta Potty for its beer garden.

"There was a request by Crafted to be able to use a Porta Potty in lieu of having permanent restrooms for a proposed beer garden behind the existing Crafted building," she said. "Because the existing city code does not allow for that — in fact, the existing city code only speaks to the use of ‘privies,’ which is different than portable toilets or Porta Potties — we realized it was probably important to address the city ordinance and to acknowledge the fact that there are Porta Potties that are being used throughout the city for parks, on public properties, special events, things like that."

Important factors considered for the drafted ordinance were hand-washing stations, health, safety, length of time Porta Potties are allowed in certain locations, orientation and screening, cleaning and maintenance responsibility and what permits are necessary for special uses.

"What we find out is when a question comes forward and start turning over the rocks and we find out that we’re kind of hanging out, there’s nothing really there,” Ingalls said. "That’s the way these things go, but I think it’s important to understand that this is a lot bigger than Crafted. We’re a city that’s all about activities: Ironman, Ales for Trails, street fairs and Live After 5 and all kinds of events. I mean, geez, we’re almost the Porta Potty capital of the world in the summer with all these events."

After much discussion between multiple departments, two workshops and a period of input gathering, the proposed "Porta Potty Ordinance" No. 0-1-16 outlines when, where and how Porta Potties are appropriate.

Key components of the new ordinance state "seasonal use" is to be no more than 180 consecutive days in a calendar year and "temporary use" should not exceed seven consecutive days that cannot be repeated within the calendar year. Permits are required for temporary and special uses but not for community events.

The "Porta Potty Ordinance" will go before Coeur d'Alene City Council during its May 17 meeting at 6 p.m. in the Coeur d'Alene Public Library.