Sonoma County, CA Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

California Vehicle Code Sec. 22660 authorizes counties and cities to adopt abandoned-vehicle abatement ordinances that designate vehicles wrecked, dismantled, inoperative, or abandoned on private or public property as a public nuisance and authorize removal by the local agency. Sonoma County exercised that authority through Chapter 18 of the County Code (Motor Vehicles and Traffic), and the program is administered by Permit Sonoma's Code Enforcement Division (formerly part of the Permit and Resource Management Department, PRMD). The voluntary free-tow program covers passenger cars, pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, and vans located on private property in unincorporated Sonoma County. The property owner must submit a written request through SoCo Connect (the County's online reporting platform at socoreport.org) or by contacting Code Enforcement at (707) 565-1992 or PRMD-Enforcement@sonomacounty.gov, granting the County and its contractor permission to enter, remove, and dismantle the vehicle. No DMV paperwork is required from the resident - the County handles title clearance through the DMV's CVC Sec. 22851 lien-sale process. The program explicitly excludes recreational vehicles, motor homes, boats, dismantled-vehicle parts yards, commercial RV storage yards, and active auto repair shops; those vehicles must be handled through the standard CVC Sec. 22850 stored-vehicle process. On public roads and highways in unincorporated Sonoma County, vehicles parked in the same location for more than 72 hours violate Cal. Vehicle Code Sec. 22651(k) and are subject to citation and tow by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office or, on state highways, the California Highway Patrol; vehicles with expired registration of more than six months are subject to immediate tow under CVC Sec. 22651(o)(1)(A). The Sonoma County Abandoned Vehicle Abatement Service Authority (AVASA), established in 1991 under California Vehicle Code Sec. 22710 and 9250.7, is a joint powers authority of the County and participating cities (Cloverdale, Cotati, Healdsburg, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma, and Windsor) that levies a $1 surcharge on each vehicle registration in Sonoma County, returned by the DMV to AVASA and distributed to fund local abatement programs. The County's contracted tow operators are licensed under CHP rotation tow contracts and the vehicles are typically taken to one of the County's contracted dismantlers for processing. After the 2017, 2019, and 2020 fires, the County and CalRecycle jointly operated a debris-and-vehicle removal program for fire-destroyed vehicles, separate from the routine abatement program. On parcels in the Coastal Zone (CC suffix), abandoned-vehicle removal generally does not require a Coastal Development Permit because it falls within the maintenance/repair exemptions of the California Coastal Act, but the underlying vehicle storage may still be regulated.