Amarillo, TX Parking Rules: Dibs & Space Saving (2026)

Amarillo's unauthorized reserved parking ordinance, Sec. 16-3-181, targets any device, not just signs, used to save a public parking spot: the text covers any "Sign, signal, marking or device" that indicates or is designed to reserve a parking space, language broad enough to reach folding chairs, cones, sawhorses, or trash cans placed at the curb to hold a spot for an adjoining property owner or that owner's customers. The rule sits in Article V, Division 1 of Chapter 16-3, the same division that governs stopping, standing, and parking generally, and it applies to public sidewalks, curbs, and streets citywide, not a single business district.

Enforcement does not require a citation first: Sec. 16-3-182 gives the Traffic Engineer standing authority to remove any unauthorized sign, signal, or marking, or have it removed, without prior notice to whoever placed it. That means a business owner who sets out a reserving cone for a favored customer, or a resident who blocks off curb space in front of their house with a chair, can have the item hauled away by the city with no warning, in addition to facing a separate citation for the underlying conduct.

Because Sec. 16-3-181 sits outside the civil parking-ticket carve-out in Sec. 1-1-5(e), which only reaches overtime and posted-zone parking violations under Article V sections 16-3-176 through 16-3-250, an unauthorized reserved-parking violation is punished under the Code's general penalty instead.