Omaha, NE Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Article V of Chapter 18 governs unlawfully abandoned, parked or stored vehicles citywide. Section 18-41 defines "vehicle" for the article by cross-reference to section 16-21, which defines a vehicle broadly as any device in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a public highway, except devices moved solely by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. Section 18-42 then makes it unlawful, and expressly declares it a nuisance, for any person to park, store or abandon any vehicle or parts thereof in violation of the Omaha Municipal Code, state statutes, or federal law.

This reaches junked cars sitting in yards, driveways, alleys and streets, not just vehicles left on public right-of-way. Section 18-43 gives named city officials, the planning director, the administrative services department, the chief of police, and the parks, recreation and public property director, or their authorized representatives, the power to determine that a vehicle or its parts pose an imminent danger to public health, safety or welfare and to order its immediate removal. The removal cost can be charged to the owner of the land where the vehicle sits, to the owner of the vehicle itself, or to both. 00, imprisonment of up to six months, or both, at the court's discretion, with each day the violation continues counted as a separate offense.