Roanoke, VA Parking Rules: Commercial & Oversized Vehicles (2026)

Sec. 20-71(a) defines "commercial motor vehicle" broadly for this rule: any vehicle or trailer used, designed or maintained to transport people or property for compensation or profit, specifically listing trucks, tractor cabs, farm tractors, construction equipment, buses, trailers, semi-trailers, taxis, limousines, tow trucks, dump trucks, roll-back tow trucks, flatbed trucks and step vans. Subsection (b) bars parking or leaving such a vehicle standing on any street or alley in a residential district for more than two hours at a time, with seven listed exceptions: school buses in active use, emergency vehicles including those owned by the city, vehicles actively being loaded or unloaded, vehicles belonging to the occupant of a lawfully existing business on the premises, vehicles whose occupants are actually working on the premises, vehicles engaged in utility or street work, and city-list tow trucks and roll-backs on call.

Subsection (c) adds a separate, absolute rule for hazardous cargo: any vehicle designed or intended to carry caustic, flammable, explosive or otherwise dangerous materials may never park overnight in a residential district, with no exceptions listed. Subsection (d) narrows the definition for the two-hour rule specifically: ordinary vans, pickup trucks and panel trucks don't count as "commercial motor vehicles" for purposes of subsections (a) and (b), so a resident's pickup or work van isn't subject to the two-hour cap even though it might otherwise fit the general description.