Blue Earth County, MN Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Section 24-310(o) targets junk and derelict vehicles directly: automotive vehicles or trailers of any kind or type without current legal license plates or those inoperable shall not be parked or stored on any property zoned C, RR or RT other than in completely enclosed buildings. That means a car with expired tabs, or one that no longer runs, cannot sit in a driveway, side yard or field in the county's Country, Rural Residence or Rural Townsite districts; it has to be inside a garage or other fully enclosed structure.

The rule sits alongside a related standard in section 24-303, Environmental hazard abatement, which lists 'inoperative or unlicensed motor vehicles, combustion engines and parts' among the environmental hazards that must be abated before any development permit or final plat is approved on the property. Read together, the two sections give the county's Environmental Services department and zoning administrator two separate tools: a use-based parking violation under section 24-310(o) for the vehicle itself, and a hazard-abatement order under section 24-303 if the vehicle is tied to a pending permit or plat application.

Neither section carves out an exception for a vehicle being actively repaired; the enclosed-building requirement applies regardless of the owner's intent to fix it. Business and industrial districts (GB, HB, LI, HI) are not covered by subsection (o), so the outdoor storage limit is specific to the county's residential and rural districts.