San Marcos, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Towing Companies (2026)
Key Facts
- Yard location required
- Inside San Marcos city limits
- Perimeter requirement
- Securely fenced, completely screened
- Exception radius
- 5 miles when only 1 in-city yard exists
- Minimum bidder pool goal
- At least 2 qualified towing firms
- Adopting ordinance
- Ord. No. 99-1065, 8-22-1999
Summary
Every tow operator working under contract to San Marcos or the San Diego County Sheriff's Department must keep a legally permitted, fenced and screened vehicle impound yard inside the city limits, sized to hold every vehicle it stores under that public contract.
All vehicle towing operators under contract to, or otherwise employed by, the City of San Marcos and/or San Diego County Sheriff's Department to perform towing services within the City of San Marcos shall continuously maintain, within the City limits, a legally permitted vehicle impound yard ("yard") conforming to all applicable State, local and contract requirements. Notwithstanding such requirements, all yards shall, at a minimum, be available for the operator's exclusive use and shall be sufficiently sized to hold all vehicles stored as a result of the operator's public contract within a securely fenced, completely screened perimeter.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 14 Update 1).
Full Breakdown
23, Towing Services, requires that any towing operator under contract to, or otherwise employed by, the City of San Marcos and/or the San Diego County Sheriff's Department to perform towing services in San Marcos continuously maintain a legally permitted vehicle impound yard inside the City limits (Sec. 010). The yard must conform to all applicable State, local and contract requirements, be available for that operator's exclusive use, be large enough to hold every vehicle stored under the public contract, and sit within a securely fenced, completely screened perimeter, so stored vehicles are not visible from surrounding streets or properties.
Sec. 020 carves out a narrow exception aimed at keeping the towing-contract bidder pool competitive: the in-city yard requirement is suspended during any period when no more than one towing firm maintains a legally permitted storage yard within the City limits. During that gap, firms with a legal yard within five miles of the City limits may bid on City or Sheriff's Department towing contracts, and the City Manager or a designee can widen that five-mile radius as needed to keep at least two qualified bidders in the pool at all times. The chapter was adopted by Ordinance No. 04's uniform licensing procedure.
Violations & Fines
Chapter 5.23 does not set its own penalty clause, so a contracted tow operator that fails to maintain a compliant in-city yard, or that bids or operates outside the five-mile exception radius when more than one in-city yard exists, is enforced under the Municipal Code's general penalty in Sec. 1.12.010: an infraction for the first three violations of the same requirement in a year, escalating to a misdemeanor on a fourth violation, with each day of noncompliance treated as a separate offense and enforceable by administrative citation under Chapter 1.14.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do San Marcos tow companies have to store vehicles inside the city?
Is there ever an exception to the in-city yard rule?
Does this rule apply to private, non-consent tows from a parking lot?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in San Marcos
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