Palm Desert, CA Parking Rules: Commercial & Oversized Vehicles (2026)

Section 10.98.010 regulates commercial vehicle parking in the City of Palm Desert in two layers. Subsection B is the heavy-truck rule. It reaches any commercial vehicle, truck, trailer or semitrailer with a manufacturer's gross vehicle weight rating of ten thousand pounds or more, and makes it unlawful to park or leave it standing: on any highway, street, road, alley or private property within any residential district; on any vacant lot or unimproved property; on nonresidential property so that any part of the vehicle is within one hundred feet of a residential dwelling; within one hundred fifty feet of any driveway opening; on commercially zoned property for any purpose other than doing business at the site; on any property so that any part of the vehicle is within fifteen feet of the public sidewalk or a public or private roadway edge; on any alley; and on any street adjacent to a parcel with a public facility, which includes parks, schools and civic buildings.

Subsection A applies regardless of weight. It makes it unlawful to park or leave standing a vehicle or trailer that transports animals or harbors vermin, trash, yard waste or pestilence or emits noxious or nuisance odors, anywhere on a street or on public or private property in the city; a vehicle or trailer containing hazardous substances as defined in Section 2452 of the California Vehicle Code; an unattached non-motorized trailer, boat trailer, boat, camper, camp trailer, trailer coach or semitrailer on any highway, street, road or alley; and a vehicle on a street for the purpose of servicing or repairing it, except in an emergency. Businesses in the city that maintain a commercial vehicle or any vehicle fleet related to business activity must use only city approved off street parking.

Section 10.98.020 carves out two exemptions. The chapter does not apply when the commercial vehicle is making pickups or deliveries of goods, wares and merchandise from or to a building or structure on a street within a residential zone, or is delivering materials for the actual and bona fide repair, alteration, remodeling or construction of a building or structure on such a street. Truck movement is regulated separately: § 10.68.040 requires the operator of a vehicle exceeding three tons gross weight to stay on designated truck routes, subject to its own pickup and delivery exceptions.