Gilroy, CA Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

Gilroy City Code § 5C.9(a) prohibits keeping, storing or parking any motor vehicle, whether operable or inoperable, on any portion of a residential front yard except on an area paved in accordance with the paved-surface limitations set in the city's Zoning Ordinance. Section 5C.2 defines "motor vehicle" broadly to include a passenger vehicle, truck, boat, camper, recreational vehicle, motorcycle or golf cart (but not a motorized wheelchair, bicycle, tricycle or quadracycle), and defines "paved" as treated or covered with concrete, asphalt or other similar material approved by the community development director.

Section 5C.9(b) clarifies that the paved-area rule does not authorize any parking that is otherwise prohibited or restricted elsewhere in the Municipal Code or Zoning Ordinance. A related front-yard rule, § 5C.8(b), separately makes it blight to store a wrecked, dismantled or disassembled vehicle, or one that is disabled or inoperable for more than seventy-two consecutive hours, in a residential front yard regardless of paving. Because unpaved front-yard parking is defined as "property blight" under § 5C.4, violations are enforced through the same public-nuisance and abatement machinery as other residential blight: § 5C.3 declares the condition a nuisance, and § 5C.11 incorporates Chapter 5B's abatement sections 5B.5 through 5B.11 by reference, so the city administrator can order corrections, imminently dangerous conditions may be summarily abated at the owner's expense under § 5C.12, and non-emergency blight follows the resolution-and-notice abatement procedure of § 5C.13.