Palm Beach Gardens, FL: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Section 78-375 draws a hard line between minor maintenance and real repair work on a vehicle parked in a residential zoning district. Minor repairs, which residents can perform outdoors without restriction, are limited to changing or replenishing fluids such as hydraulic fluid, windshield washer fluid, and lubricating oil, replacing wiper blades, replacing spark plugs and related parts, rotating tires and checking tire pressure, and replacing drive belts and hydraulic lines. Anything beyond that list, brake work, engine or transmission repair, bodywork, and similar jobs, falls under the section's other-repairs category, which comes with three conditions at once: the work must occur in a completely enclosed space such as a garage, it must be performed on a privately registered vehicle carrying current state license plates, or one the state has designated an antique or horseless carriage, and it can only be performed at the address shown on that vehicle's own registration, so repairing a neighbor's car or a car registered elsewhere is out of bounds.

Section 78-375(d) closes the loophole a driveway repair business might try to exploit: using residential property for automobile or motor vehicle repairs of a commercial nature is prohibited outright, regardless of whether the work would otherwise fit the enclosed-space and registration conditions.