Anatomy of an Ordinance

Have you ever been surprised by a local ordinance that seemingly came out of nowhere and impacted how you do business? You’re not alone, but you can avoid that feeling.

Often, the frustration isn’t with the ordinance itself. It’s realizing too late that there had been a window to weigh in, and nobody knew it was open.

Even though it may sometimes feel like it, local ordinances don’t appear overnight. Understanding the typical life cycle of a local rule and where operators fit in will not only raise your awareness, but possibly open windows to influence the outcome.

Step 1: Introduction of an Ordinance. An ordinance usually begins as a draft, prompted by a local complaint, a council member’s initiative or a neighboring municipality’s rule. The language is usually still debatable and in an idea phase at this point, making this the highest leverage moment to offer input and the moment most easily missed.

Step 2: Committee/Admin Review. The draft typically moves to a committee, planning board or municipal staff for review. Meetings here are public but sparsely attended and sometimes sparsely advertised. Practical questions about placement, access, timing and fees get worked out. In the field of portable sanitation, it is quite probable this happens without anyone in the room who is actually in the industry.

Step 3: Public Notice and Comment Period. Municipalities generally must post notice of an upcoming vote and allow a comment period. But notices are often buried in agendas or legal listings few people check.

Step 4: Public Hearing and Vote. By the time an ordinance reaches a scheduled vote, most councils want to finalize, not reopen debate. Comments can still matter if they raise a real implementation problem, but changing the outcome is much harder than shaping it earlier.

Step 5: Adoption and Implementation. Once passed, the ordinance takes effect on its written timeline, sometimes immediately and sometimes with a grace period. This is when operators discover the real-world friction points, often too late to influence them.

Knowing this cycle changes what “staying informed” looks like. It’s not about scanning for ordinances that already passed, but knowing where to look while a draft is still just a draft.

This is also why PSAI invests upstream, before any ordinance is drafted. As an ANSI accredited standards developer, PSAI writes and maintains industry standards that give regulators a credible reference for quality and safety, making it easier to point a council toward sound policy instead of starting from scratch. PSAI’s role in the Waste Disposal Crisis Alliance, alongside NOWRA, NAWT and GOWRA, follows the same logic: getting ahead of one of the industry’s biggest financial and logistical challenges through education and advocacy, rather than reacting once disposal access becomes a local crisis (although it already is in many places).

A few ways to build that same habit locally:

• Check your council or planning board agenda monthly, even briefly. There may be newsletters or email announcements you can subscribe to as well.
• Ask your local chamber of commerce if they track pending ordinances.
• Attend one council or committee meeting each quarter.
• Loop in PSAI early. We can help interpret draft language and connect you with operators who’ve faced similar issues.

To go above and beyond, you may even look into serving on various local committees or boards. PSAI also often has seats available on various committees that influence the industry from a national to even a global level.

Ordinances move fastest when no one from the affected industry is in the room. Showing up early, even just to listen, often makes the difference between shaping a rule and simply living with it.