Columbia, SC Parking Rules: Commercial & Oversized Vehicles (2026)

Section 12-42 of the Columbia Code of Ordinances targets long-term street parking by commercial trucks, RVs, and trailers rather than day-to-day traffic. The rule doesn't ban these vehicles from ever touching a public street; it bans 'storage,' which the section defines precisely as leaving such a vehicle unattended on a street, or leaving it unmoved from one location, for longer than two hours, day or night, with no obvious sign of continuous human use during that two-hour window. That two-hour clock applies equally to a driveway apron cut into the right-of-way: the section defines 'street' broadly to include the entire right-of-way, not just the paved travel lane, so a trailer parked in the grassy strip between the curb and a homeowner's property line is treated the same as one left in a travel lane.

The rule reaches every size and description of commercial vehicle, recreational vehicle, or trailer, so box trucks, tractor-trailers, camper trailers, boat trailers, and motorhomes are all covered without a weight or length threshold written into the text. Enforcement runs through the parking services division and city police, who can cite the registered owner under the general owner-responsibility rule in section 12-50 regardless of who parked the vehicle, and the general code penalty in section 1-5 applies because Article II of Chapter 12 does not set out its own fine for this particular violation.