Mesa County, CO Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

2 exempts accumulation and storage of junk and unlicensed or inoperable vehicles from planning approval when several criteria are met. No more than one intact inoperable or unlicensed vehicle, which can include a trailer or camper, may be kept outdoors in ordinary view on a property without an approved junk yard, salvage yard, or industrial storage use permit; a dismantled or wrecked vehicle counts as junk and requires removal or screening regardless. Every other unlicensed or inoperable vehicle, plus any junk, rubbish, non-contained trash, garbage or debris in ordinary view, must be legally removed or kept in a screened storage area shielded by a solid fence, evergreen trees or shrubbery, or an enclosed structure; a tarp alone does not satisfy the standard, and the exemption covers personal, not commercial, storage.

The screened area cannot sit inside a required setback, and screened items generally cannot project above the screening fence or wall. The screened storage area is capped at five percent of the total parcel size, up to a maximum of 22,000 square feet, or roughly half an acre. Active or serviceable agricultural vehicles and equipment used in a legitimate agricultural operation protected under the county's Right to Farm and Ranch policy are exempt from any numeric limit regardless of registration status, and a related subsection caps used or waste tire storage at fifty in a Rural Zone District and ten in an Urban Residential Zoning District, with disposal only at a county-designated landfill or authorized facility.