Royal Oak Township, MI Parking Rules: Commercial & Oversized Vehicles (2026)

Article IV of Chapter 26 of the Royal Oak Charter Township code (added by Ord. No. 250, 7-8-2021) regulates commercial vehicles and commercial equipment in residential districts. Section 26-75 states that the article takes precedence over any conflicting parking provision in the Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 32, and that non-conflicting zoning provisions stay in force.

Section 26-77(a) covers public property in a residential district, including public streets, rights-of-way, sidewalks and the planting areas between sidewalks and curbs. Section 26-77(b) covers private property: apart from an enclosed building, none of the listed items can be parked or stored there. The test is whether the item sits inside an enclosed building.

The definitions in § 26-76 decide what is caught. A commercial vehicle is a motorized vehicle exceeding three-fourths-ton load capacity primarily intended for commercial use. A tow truck is a vehicle designed to tow or transport inoperable or disabled vehicles. A utility trailer is a trailer or nonmotorized vehicle designed to be towed to carry property for commercial or noncommercial purposes, including work tools or equipment, snowmobiles, boats, motorcycles and other recreational equipment. A mobile structure trailer has a roof and walls and is at least 10 feet wide. Commercial equipment and construction equipment cover bulldozers, front-end loaders, power shovels and similar heavy equipment, plus trailers built to haul it. A residential district means any one-family, two-family, multiple-family or residential mobile home park district on the Township zoning maps.

The exception in § 26-77(c) is limited to use of the vehicle or equipment in performing a service to the adjacent property, for the limited period of time needed to complete that service. As printed, it names commercial vehicles or equipment, construction equipment, mobile structure trailers and utility trailers, and does not name tow trucks.

Responsibility sits with two parties under § 26-78: the owner of the vehicle or equipment and the owner of the property where it is kept, unless the property is public. The registered owner shown by the plate is presumed to be the owner, and the name on the most recent Township tax assessment roll is presumed to be the property owner. Section 26-79 lets the Zoning Board of Appeals vary the article where topography or other physical conditions not caused by the applicant would make enforcement an unusual or undue hardship.