Albany, OR Parking Rules: Curb Color Rules (2026)

Section 13.16.040 of the Albany Municipal Code, in the Signs and Signals chapter of Title 13, Vehicles and Traffic, closes the curb to private paintbrushes. It is unlawful for any person to letter, mark or paint in any manner any letters, marks or signs on any sidewalk, curb, street or alley. The same section bars posting on a parking strip anything designed or intended to prohibit or restrict parking in front of any sidewalk, dwelling house, business house, or in any alley. The only exception is compliance with the provisions of Title 13, so a homeowner or business that wants parking restricted cannot paint the curb or set out a sign on the strip and has to go through the City.

The City's own authority sits in § 13.21.060. The Public Works Director is authorized to designate and mark off individual parking spaces on public streets and parking lots, and spaces are designated by lines painted or durably marked upon the curbing or the surface of the street. The Director is also authorized to post signs on or next to public streets or parking lots regulating how vehicles may be parked. Section 13.21.050(1) then makes it unlawful to stand or park in violation of any sign posted by the City of Albany, and § 13.21.020(2) requires a vehicle to stop within a single marked space, in the indicated direction, wherever parking space markings are placed on a street.

Official markings and devices are protected as well. Section 13.16.010(2) says no unauthorized person shall move, remove or alter the position of, or deface or tamper with any traffic sign, signal, marker, barrier or parking meter. Parking within 10 feet of a fire hydrant and in front of a private driveway is barred by § 13.21.030 whether or not any paint is on the curb, and § 13.21.030(15) bars stopping at any place where traffic control devices prohibit it. The sections quoted for this page do not assign meanings to particular curb colors; what they fix is who is allowed to mark.