Cocoa, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Towing Companies (2026)

Section 20-79 of the Cocoa Code of Ordinances authorizes any law enforcement officer to have a vehicle or vessel impounded and removed from a street or public property to a place of safety or a designated storage facility, using the next obtainable towing company, under thirteen listed circumstances. These include vehicles left unattended on bridges or causeways that obstruct traffic, vehicles disabled so as to obstruct traffic, vehicles left unattended on a street for more than twenty-four hours and presumed abandoned, vehicles parked in violation of a posted sign, and vehicles with five or more unpaid parking citations.

Subsection (10) specifically governs private-property tow-away signage: any sign authorizing towing from private property must be posted at each driveway access or curb cut, or, where there are none, at least once per twenty-five feet of lot frontage, must state the parking restriction in letters at least two inches high in light-reflective, contrasting lettering, must include the words 'tow-away zone' in letters at least four inches high, and must give either the name and phone number of the towing company or a statement that the Cocoa Police Department can provide the impoundment location.

Section 20-80 requires an owner to pay towing and storage charges, set by contract between the city and private towing firms and approved by the city manager, before a vehicle is released. Section 20-81 requires officers to make a good-faith effort to notify a known registered owner by mail and to document the tow in a written inventory report. These sections were most recently amended by Ordinance No. 03-2024 in April 2024.