Dubuque, IA Parking Rules: Curb Color Rules (2026)

Section 9-14-321.664 gives the City Manager sole authority to have lines or markings painted or fixed on the curb, or on the street pavement, next to every parking meter to define the legal parking space that meter covers. Once those lines are down, a vehicle must park entirely within them: straddling a line, or stopping outside any marked space anywhere in the parking meter district, is a violation even if a meter is not overtime. The adjoining Section 9-14-321.663 requires meters themselves to be installed on the curb immediately next to the marked space and to visibly signal, through a dial and pointer, whether the space is legally or illegally occupied.

The parking meter district itself is established citywide by the City Council under Section 9-14-321.666, covering dozens of named downtown blocks along streets such as the numbered Streets, Main Street, Locust Street, and Bluff Street. Meters must show legal parking between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, except on holidays defined elsewhere in the title, under Section 9-14-321.665. Curb-line painting is strictly a City Manager function, not something a business or resident may do on their own initiative; there is no private right to mark or repaint a city curb for parking purposes anywhere in Dubuque.