Kenner, LA Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

The City of Kenner adopted a dedicated abandoned-vehicle ordinance, §§ 7-171.1 through 7-171.15, under authority the state grants municipalities in La. R.S. 32:471 et seq. Section 7-171.1 declares that accumulating and storing abandoned motor vehicles on private property creates blight, invites plundering, creates fire hazards, forms an attractive nuisance dangerous to minors, and harbors rodents and insects, and it makes maintaining such a vehicle unlawful and prohibited within the municipal limits of the city except as the ordinance allows. Section 7-171.3 defines an 'abandoned motor vehicle' as any junked or nuisance vehicle that is mechanically inoperable and/or left on private property more than fifteen consecutive days, and separately defines a 'junked motor vehicle' as one partially dismantled or wrecked, unable to move under its own power, more than five years old and worth less than $250, or missing parts required to be street-legal.

Exceptions in § 7-171.4 cover vehicles fully enclosed in a building, vehicles at a licensed storage or racing facility, retained antique vehicles over twenty-five years old, and a vehicle advertised for private sale for up to ninety days with a 'For Sale' sign. Enforcement runs through the city's Police Department or Department of Inspection and Code Enforcement: an officer tags the vehicle, the owner has fifteen days to abate it, or seven days to request a hearing or extension, and unresolved cases go before a magistrate judge who can order the vehicle towed at the owner's expense.

Under § 7-171.8(i), a person adjudicated in violation is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500, imprisonment of up to sixty days, or both, plus up to thirty-two hours of community service. The ordinance derives from Ord. No. 9939 (2009), amended through Ord. No. 11,202 (2016).