Lower Merion, PA Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Chapter 92, Property Maintenance, adopts the International Property Maintenance Code and then customizes it with Township-specific insertions under Section 92-2. One of those insertions, new Section 302.10, Outdoor storage in residential areas, caps outdoor vehicle and equipment storage on residential lots: not more than one boat, house trailer, pop-up trailer, camper-top motor home, unregistered and/or uninspected motor vehicle, or other similar device for transporting people on highways or water, or for temporary living accommodation, may be parked or stored outdoors on any residentially zoned or used property.

The rule reaches an inoperable or unregistered car sitting in a driveway or yard just as it reaches a boat or camper, since the list is not limited to recreational equipment; anything beyond the single permitted item has to go, or move indoors, once a Code Official identifies a violation. The same insertion requires that whatever single vehicle or item is kept outdoors sit on a gravel or paved surface rather than bare ground or lawn. Section 92-1's adopted penalty clause, inserted as Section 106.4, backs the storage limit: a Code Official who documents noncompliance can issue a citation, and each day the extra vehicle or equipment remains counts as a separate offense, so the exposure grows the longer an unregistered car sits on the property after notice. The Building and Planning Department's Code Official administers and enforces Chapter 92, including this storage limit, as part of its property-maintenance inspections.