Rhode Island General Laws

R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-4 (2026)

Conditions to licensing of automobile junkyard

✓ current as of July 2026
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No license shall be granted for an automobile junkyard under § 5-21-1 unless:

(1) It is to be operated and maintained entirely within a building;

(2) It is to be operated and maintained exclusively for the purpose of salvaging the value as scrap of the material collected, as opposed to reselling parts to be used for the purpose for which they were originally manufactured, and is to be located in a built-up industrial area, or contiguous to a railroad siding, or on or contiguous to docking facilities; or

(3) It is:

(i) More than one thousand feet (1,000′) from the nearest edge of any highway on the interstate or primary system;

(ii) More than six hundred feet (600′) from any other state highway;

(iii) More than three hundred feet (300′) from any park, bathing beach, playground, school, church, or cemetery and is not within ordinary view from those places; and

(iv) Screened from view either by natural objects or well-constructed and properly maintained fences at least six feet (6′) high acceptable to that city or town and in accordance with regulations as promulgated by the director of public works and as specified on the license.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 1968–1985 · leading case: Town of Scituate v. O'ROURKE, 239 A.2d 176 (R.I. 1968).
Town of Scituate v. O'ROURKE, 239 A.2d 176 (R.I. 1968). · cites it 2× “2 Section 5-21-4 is set forth, in appendix of this opinion.”
Newport Auto Salvage, Inc. v. Town Council of Portsmouth, 502 A.2d 339 (R.I. 1985). · cites it 2× “The second ground was the location of the proposed junkyard within a distance of less than 600 feet of a state highway in violation of the provisions of § 5-21-4(c)(2), coupled with the complete absence of any evidence that the junkyard would be operated entirely within a…”
Lambert v. Town Council, 256 A.2d 1 (R.I. 1969). · cites it 7× “1956, §5-21-4, while appearing on the face of the certificate of license issued to the applicant by the town clerk, differ from the restrictions placed upon the license as granted by the town council.”
— R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-4(a) — 1 case
Newport Auto Salvage, Inc. v. Town Council of Portsmouth, 502 A.2d 339 (R.I. 1985). “The second ground was the location of the proposed junkyard within a distance of less than 600 feet of a state highway in violation of the provisions of § 5-21-4(c)(2), coupled with the complete absence of any evidence that the junkyard would be operated entirely within a…”
— R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-4(c)(2) — 1 case
Newport Auto Salvage, Inc. v. Town Council of Portsmouth, 502 A.2d 339 (R.I. 1985). “The second ground was the location of the proposed junkyard within a distance of less than 600 feet of a state highway in violation of the provisions of § 5-21-4(c)(2), coupled with the complete absence of any evidence that the junkyard would be operated entirely within a…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.