Columbus, IN Parking Rules: Commercial & Oversized Vehicles (2026)

Chapter 10.30 of the Columbus Municipal Code, Parking and Storage for Oversize Vehicles, sets the standards for parking motor vehicles and nonmotorized vehicles in the public right-of-way. Section 10.30.010 gives the reasons: protecting property values by reducing visual blight, aiding emergency access and fire safety, guarding against rodent and pest harborage, and reducing the leaking of motor vehicle fluids.

The operative rule is § 10.30.030(A). In areas zoned residential, including multifamily areas, as designated on the City's official zoning map maintained by the Planning Department, no commercial vehicle can be stored on any city street, sidewalk, public right-of-way, or alley. The ban reaches a commercial vehicle hooked to a truck, car or other hauling vehicle, and it sits in the same sentence as recreational vehicles, boats and non-motorized vehicles.

Section 10.30.020 defines a Commercial Vehicle by dimensions: more than two axles, a single vehicle or combination longer than twenty-two feet, a single vehicle or combination eighty-four inches or more in width, or a manufacturer's gross vehicle weight rating of fifteen thousand pounds or more.

Subsection D exempts construction vehicles and equipment and commercial vehicles on a public street or public right-of-way while they provide construction or other similar service to the adjacent property. Even that exemption carries a limit: no parking within seventy-five feet of any intersection, measured from the centerline of the intersecting streets.

A separate citywide rule in § 10.28.320 bars a commercial motor vehicle of six thousand pounds or more by manufacturer's rating, and any semitrailer or trailer, from parking or standing on a curbed street forty-six feet or less wide back of curb to back of curb, on an uncurbed street with a paved or traveled width of forty-six feet or less, or on any alley. Section 10.28.330 excuses stops forced by mechanical trouble, traffic conditions, an accident, an officer's direction, or a reasonable time to load and unload.