Vestavia Hills, AL Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Article VI, adopted by Ordinance No. 453 on November 20, 1978, requires anyone who holds or operates a garage sale at a residential dwelling in a residentially zoned area of the city to first purchase a permit under Section 8-151. 00, payable to the city. Section 8-153 limits the length of any single sale authorized by the permit to not more than two calendar days for a period of ten hours on the dates requested in the application. Section 8-154 then caps how often a household can hold a sale at all, barring any person from operating or allowing a garage sale at a residential dwelling in a residential area on more than two occasions in any one consecutive 12-month calendar period.

Because the permit requirement, duration limit, and annual cap are separate sections passed together under the same 1978 ordinance, an applicant who obtains a permit under Section 8-151 is still bound by both the two-day, ten-hour ceiling in Section 8-153 and the two-sales-per-year ceiling in Section 8-154 for the same address. The editor's note attached to Section 8-151 points to the city's zoning ordinance, on file with the city clerk, to determine which areas qualify as residentially zoned for purposes of the permit.