Killeen, TX Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Sec. 18-51 defines a junked vehicle as one displaying an expired registration sticker or no plate at all, plus either wrecked or dismantled condition, or that 72-hour/30-day inoperability window. A nuisance vehicle covers the same window but adds vehicles propped on jack stands, missing wheels, or sitting on flat tires. Sec. 18-52 declares any junked or nuisance vehicle visible from a public place a public nuisance that invites vandalism, creates fire hazard and produces urban blight. Sec. 18-53 exempts vehicles fully enclosed in a building, screened dealer or collector storage kept orderly, racing or off-road vehicles stored no more than 15 days, and gives auto body shops an affirmative defense against a nuisance-vehicle notice.

Abatement under Sec. 18-54 lets the code enforcement director, or any city-authorized person, enter private property to identify and remove the nuisance. If the owner requests a hearing before the tenth day, Sec. 18-57 sets it before the executive director of development services, where the vehicle is presumed inoperable unless the owner proves otherwise. Notice must go out by certified mail at least ten days ahead under Sec. 18-56, and the Texas Department of Transportation gets notified within five days of any removal. An owner can voluntarily surrender the vehicle within that ten-day window under Sec.

18-58 to satisfy the order. Removed vehicles go to a scrapyard or demolisher and can never be reconstructed or made operable again under Sec. 18-59.