Rochester, MN Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Rochester City Code § 8-3-6(a) prohibits placing, parking, storing, or leaving any motor vehicle in an open space area of a property anywhere in the city unless it meets three conditions at once: the vehicle carries a valid current motor vehicle license, it is not missing essential parts that would make it inoperable, and it is not rusted, wrecked, partially dismantled, or junked. A vehicle failing any one of those three tests is an abandoned motor vehicle under the section, whether it sits on a public street, a driveway, or a backyard.

Section 8-3-6(b) puts the removal duty first on the vehicle's owner or possessor: once the city makes a demand, that person has ten working days to move the vehicle to a duly licensed junkyard or other authorized place of deposit or storage. If the owner or possessor cannot be located, the duty shifts to the property owner, who gets the same ten-day window. The definition in § 8-3-6(c) is broad, covering "every vehicle which is self-propelled," not just cars. This section sits inside Chapter 8-3's broader nuisance findings.

Section 8-3-4 separately declares the unsheltered storage of old, unused, stripped, or junked automobiles a nuisance and a danger to public health and safety, citing impeded traffic, invited plundering, fire hazards, and blight, and § 8-3-5(c) exempts vehicles kept inside an enclosed building, on a lawfully operating business's premises when necessary to that business, or in a city-maintained storage yard. An enforcement action starts with the notice-to-abate and hearing process in § 8-3-8, and a property owner who ignores it can have the city remove the vehicle and bill the cost as a lien on the property.