Kalamazoo, MI Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Section 21-31 sets minimum exterior-maintenance requirements for every property in the City, and subsection E addresses garage sales directly: yard or garage sales in which items are for sale to the public shall be no longer than seven calendar days within a ninety-day period. The rule sits alongside other exterior-upkeep duties in the same section, such as neat firewood stacks, a 90-day cap on stored building materials, and a ban on storing heavy equipment in residential zones without a permit, all filed under Chapter 21's Article IV, Blight, rather than a separate peddling or licensing chapter.

That placement means the City treats frequent or extended yard sales as a property-maintenance and neighborhood-impact issue, not a commercial-licensing question, so there's no separate garage-sale permit or fee described in § 21-31 itself. The seven-day, 90-day formula lets a household run more than one sale a year, as long as no single event or combination of events within any rolling 90-day window exceeds seven calendar days of public selling. Violations of Article IV's maintenance requirements, including the garage-sale limit, are enforced under § 21-40, the article's violation and penalty section, which sets a minimum $200 municipal civil infraction fine plus court costs, doubling to a minimum $400 for a second violation at the same property within six months.

The City Manager's enforcement staff can also order the property brought into compliance, meaning a homeowner running a sale past the seven-day cap can be ordered to close it down rather than simply pay the fine and continue.