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The Code of the City of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in plain language — with links to the official text
Unofficial plain-language guide — not affiliated with the City of Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
AI-generated summary — not legal advice. The official Code is authoritative.
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This is the founding legal document that created the City of Pottsville in 1911, issued by the Governor of Pennsylvania under the state's law for third-class cities. It transformed the Borough of Pottsville into an incorporated city, fixed the city's boundaries by surveyed metes and bounds, and granted it the rights, privileges, and franchises of a Pennsylvania city.
This chapter adopts and establishes the Code of the City of Pottsville itself — how the codified ordinances were approved, how they relate to prior city legislation, and the general rules used to interpret, define terms in, and enforce the Code as a whole. It also sets the City's consolidated fee schedule covering taxes, permits, licenses, parking, recreation, sewage systems, and fire/rescue services.
This chapter establishes the city's Department of Accounts and Finance and sets out how city money is tracked, reported, and paid out — including the Director's oversight duties, purchasing authority, and the process for approving and signing bills, claims, payrolls, and warrants.
This chapter makes the City of Pottsville subject to the Fourth to Eighth Class County Assessment Law for property assessment purposes, as of January 1, 1967.
This chapter creates and governs the City's boards, bureaus and commissions: the Bureau of Police, Bureau of Fire, Recreation Commission, Bureau of Community and Economic Development, Planning Commission, Historical Architectural Review Board, Garfield Square Monument Committee, and Blighted Property Review Committee.
This chapter governs the City's Bureau of Fire, including recovery of costs for emergency responses, false alarm charges, and mandatory fire safety inspections of multifamily and commercial buildings.
This chapter creates the city's Board of Health and sets out its membership, officers, powers, and duties, including authority over infectious disease control and public health nuisances.
This chapter establishes a uniform hiring process for non-uniformed City of Pottsville employees, run through a Bureau of Hiring and a three-member Hiring Board, meant to base hiring on qualifications rather than personal or political connections.
This chapter authorizes the City of Pottsville to organize a Hospital Authority under the state's Municipality Authorities Act of 1945.
This chapter designates the Pottsville Free Public Library as the city's official agent for providing public library service to residents and taxpayers.
This chapter establishes the City's appointed and elected officer and employee positions — including Council, the City Clerk, City Controller and Treasurer, the Code Enforcement Officer, the City Solicitor, the City Administrator, and the City Engineer — and sets out their duties, qualifications, bonding, and compensation.
This chapter establishes the office of Director of Parks and Public Property and defines that position's authority over public parks and City-owned buildings not assigned to another department.
This chapter establishes the City's pension and retirement plans for its employees, covering a Police Pension Fund and a separate pension plan for nonuniformed employees.
This chapter designates the Mayor as Director of Public Affairs, giving that office supervisory authority over the city's Bureau of Police and the office of the City Solicitor.
This chapter covers the city's Department of Public Safety (which oversees the Bureau of Fire and firefighting personnel) and sets out how the city recovers costs when it or others respond to hazardous material releases, spills, or similar emergencies ("extraordinary services").
This chapter establishes the Department of Streets and Public Improvements and defines the duties and powers of its Director over street work, public utilities in city streets, and department employees.
A ward is a numbered geographic division of the city. This chapter divides Pottsville into seven of them and spells out exactly where each one's boundaries run. It does nothing else — it does not say what wards are used for, who represents them, or how they may be changed.
This chapter requires anyone operating an alarm device (burglar or fire alarm) in the City of Pottsville, or an alarm device outside the city that terminates at Pottsville's Police Department, to obtain a permit, and it sets technical standards, fees, and penalties for false alarms.
This chapter regulates the consumption and possession of open containers of alcoholic beverages in public places in Pottsville, and separately sets out rules for permitted "BYOB" (bring-your-own-bottle) operations at businesses that let patrons bring their own alcohol.
This chapter governs the keeping of animals in the City of Pottsville, covering licensing and vaccination of dogs and cats, care and housing standards, prohibited and dangerous animals, cruelty, breeding, and enforcement with fines.
This chapter sets attorney fee amounts the city adds to unpaid tax and municipal claim accounts to cover legal collection costs, and establishes the notice procedure the city must follow before charging those fees.
This chapter requires landowners to cut or destroy noxious weeds growing on their property, and sets out how the City enforces that requirement.
This chapter adopts Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code as the City's building code and sets rules for construction, alteration, repair, and occupancy of buildings, along with the permit fees and enforcement process for that work.
This chapter sets the system for numbering houses, offices, stores, and other places of business in the city, and requires owners to display the assigned number.
This chapter adopts and enforces the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code (UCC) as Pottsville's municipal building code, and sets out how the city administers permitting, inspections, and appeals under it.
This chapter sets a nighttime curfew for children under sixteen, restricting their presence in public places and private business establishments during specified hours.
This chapter regulates donation drop-off bins (closed metal containers for depositing used clothing and other items) placed on private property within the City of Pottsville, requiring a permit for their placement and operation.
This chapter adopts electrical safety standards for wiring, equipment, and installations in buildings and structures, and sets permitting and inspection requirements for electrical work.
This chapter, the Pottsville Open Housing Ordinance, prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, financing, and advertising of commercial housing.
This chapter prohibits carrying concealed deadly weapons without authorization, discharging firearms or dangerous/combustible materials in the City, and selling, using, or discharging fireworks or other pyrotechnics in public or private places.
This chapter adopts the 2009 International Fire Code (as referenced in the 2009 International Building Code) as the City's official Fire Code, governing fire and explosion safety in the storage, handling, and use of hazardous materials and devices, and in the occupancy of buildings and premises.
This chapter regulates construction and development within the City's identified floodplain areas, including building permits, elevation and floodproofing standards, and restrictions on floodway encroachment.
This chapter requires licensing and health inspection of public eating and drinking places in the city, sets fees, and adopts state food safety regulations.
This chapter requires anyone distributing handbills, circulars, cards, samples, or similar advertisements at homes, on porches, on cars, or in other public places in the city to first get a license from the Mayor.
This chapter sets the process for creating designated handicapped parking spaces on city streets near a resident's home, and the rules governing who may use them.
This chapter regulates how fire insurance claims are paid out for fire-damaged buildings in Pottsville, requiring insurers to route a portion of large claims through the city before paying the policyholder, and to check for delinquent property taxes before paying any claim.
This chapter requires anyone operating a massage establishment or working as a massage technician in Pottsville to obtain a permit from the Chief of Police, and sets health, safety, and conduct rules for those businesses.
This chapter adopts the state Uniform Construction Code as the city's official building code and repeals the city's old mechanical code.
This chapter prohibits noise disturbances in the City of Pottsville — sounds that endanger health or safety, annoy a reasonable person, or damage property — and sets specific rules for construction and vehicle noise.
This chapter lets the City designate a building or dwelling a "nuisance property" when repeated crimes or code violations happen there or nearby within a 180-day period, and sets out notice, hearing, and penalty procedures for owners and occupants who allow that to happen.
This chapter governs conduct, hours, and use of all City of Pottsville parks, playgrounds, recreation areas, tennis courts, pools, and recreation structures, and authorizes the Recreation Commission to make additional rules.
This chapter regulates door-to-door peddling, canvassing, and soliciting; sidewalk retail stands in the Central Business District; pawnbrokers, secondhand dealers, and scrap dealers; and garage/yard sales.
This chapter adopts the state Uniform Construction Code's plumbing provisions (34 Pa. Code Chapters 401–405) as Pottsville's plumbing code, replacing the city's old 1995 plumbing code ordinance.
This chapter sets up a city system for recording property ownership records and establishes rules for public access to and use of city-owned (governmental) property.
This chapter adopts the International Property Maintenance Code, 2015 edition, as the City's standard for the condition and upkeep of all property, buildings, and structures, and sets local penalties for violations.
This chapter sets rules for property upkeep and neighborhood quality of life in Pottsville, covering trash and rubbish storage, littering, junked or nuisance vehicles, animal waste, weeds, snow/ice removal, swimming pools, vending, and tenant/permit registration.
This chapter requires owners of multifamily residential properties (three or more units) to disclose the property's legal use and any code violations before selling or transferring it.
This chapter requires owners of vacant and abandoned vacant properties (residential, commercial, and industrial) to register them with the City, keep them inspected, secured, and maintained, and obtain a certificate of compliance before reoccupancy.
This chapter requires owners of residential rental units and short-term rentals in Pottsville to register and license their properties, and sets rules for periodic inspections and certificates of compliance to confirm the property meets City codes.
This chapter governs connections to the public sewer system, use of sewers, and prohibits improper waste disposal methods like septic tanks once a sewer is available. It also sets permit requirements and fees for individual/community sewage disposal systems where no public sewer connection applies.
This chapter governs the planting, care, protection, and removal of "shade trees" — trees in public rights-of-way, parks, or other public areas — and creates the Shade Tree Commission to administer that system, including a parking-lot tree/landscaping requirement added in 2005.
This chapter covers the installation of wood/coal-burning stoves, chimneys, and fireplaces, and separately requires carbon monoxide detectors and alarms in dwellings that rely on fossil fuel combustion. It also regulates the use of outdoor wood-fired furnaces.
This chapter sets the rules for collecting, hauling, and disposing of garbage, trash, and recyclable materials in the City, including hauler permits, collection vehicle standards, mandatory recycling, construction dumpster permits, and outdoor burning restrictions.
This chapter bans using portable space heaters fueled by liquid heating oil, gasoline, kerosene, or other combustible liquids inside any building or structure in Pottsville, with a narrow exception for construction sites.
This chapter regulates stormwater runoff from land development and earth disturbance activities, requiring approved stormwater management (SWM) site plans, volume and rate controls, and green infrastructure/low impact development practices to protect water quality and reduce flooding.
This chapter covers the use and condition of city streets and sidewalks, including parades, sidewalk sales, snow/ice removal, littering, sidewalk and curb construction standards, and permits for street excavations.
This chapter sets the procedures and design standards the city uses to review and approve the subdivision of land and larger land development projects, including required streets, drainage, utilities, and lot layout.
This chapter sets out the City of Pottsville's local taxes: earned income tax, mechanical amusement device (including "skill game") tax, per capita tax, real estate transfer tax, local services tax, property and residence taxes, a business privilege tax, an occupation tax, a tax certification fee, a taxpayer bill of rights, and a business license tax.
This chapter bans minors under 18 from using or possessing tobacco products, in any form, within Pottsville or on public streets, highways, alleys, and sidewalks.
This chapter governs the placement, relocation, removal, and replacement of utility poles (telegraph, telephone, electric light, or otherwise) on city streets and highways, and the permitting process for erecting poles or running wires or laying pipes on public streets, lanes, or alleys.
This chapter governs traffic control, parking (including meters and the parking app), vehicle towing/impoundment, and use of certain city bridges and the bike path.
This chapter sets water conservation standards for new or altered plumbing fixtures and establishes the rules for connecting to and using the public water system operated by the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority.
This chapter is the City of Pottsville's Zoning Ordinance. It divides the city into 11 zoning districts and controls how land and buildings within each may be used, along with lot size, yard, height, parking, signage, and building requirements.
This chapter sets the rules for how a cable television company can operate in Pottsville, including how the City grants and renews a cable franchise, and what construction, service, billing, and privacy standards a cable provider must follow.
This chapter authorizes and governs the City of Pottsville's participation in a series of intergovernmental agreements, trusts, and cooperative associations with other municipalities and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, covering policing, insurance, investment, and workers' compensation arrangements.