Utica council amends zoning to regulate donation bins after complaints about unmarked containers

Utica City Council on Tuesday approved an amendment to the zoning ordinance to regulate donation collection bins after complaints about unmarked and possibly fraudulent containers left on private property.

The ordinance change restricts donation bins to nonresidential zoning districts and to R‑1 through R‑3 and O‑1 parcels only when those parcels are one acre or larger (the change was intended to allow legitimate church and school donations while preventing small‑lot residential placement). Planning staff also added an exemption for a single small (about 5‑by‑5‑foot) book‑donation container per parcel so library book boxes are not prohibited.

Amanda (planning staff) summarized the revisions, saying planners and the city’s building inspector recommended the acre‑size threshold to avoid displacing bins on large institutional properties such as schools and churches while preventing bins on small residential lots. The planning commission recommended the ordinance and staff added penalty language allowing the city to remove containers placed without required registration or labeling; removal costs would be charged to the property owner under a fee resolution to be drafted later.

Council approved the ordinance (adding section 21‑0‑8) by unanimous roll call. Council also directed staff to draft a fee resolution for permit and removal costs and said the fee schedule will return to council for approval.

The ordinance aims to give the city enforcement authority and to prevent scams in which unmarked donation boxes collect materials that are then resold rather than donated, a problem councilmembers cited from local news reports and from an instance near a Planet Fitness parking lot that the building inspector discovered.