Minnetonka, MN Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

Section 845.020 sets the outside parking rules for residentially-zoned property in the City of Minnetonka, Hennepin County. The front-yard area is defined as all the area between the front property line and a line drawn along the front face or faces of the principal structure and extended to the side property lines. The zoning ordinance decides which side of a lot is the front.

The surface rule is in subdivision 3(c)(2): vehicles parked or stored outside in the front-yard area must be on a paved or graveled parking or driveway area. Grass, dirt and landscaped beds in front of the house do not qualify. The same subdivision caps R-1 and R-2 property at no more than four vehicles per lawful dwelling unit anywhere outside, a count that excludes vehicles of occasional guests who do not reside on the property, and it requires vehicles, watercraft and other articles stored outside to be owned by a person who resides there. Students away at school who still claim the property as their legal residence count as residents.

The word vehicle follows Minn. Stat. § 169.011 and includes motor vehicles and trailers, but the code excludes small trailers clearly designed for general yard and garden purposes, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. Outside means outside an enclosed storage facility and visible from any other property, so a vehicle inside a garage is not counted.

The council justified the rule in subdivision 2 by pointing to obstructed views, cluttered areas, loss of full use of residential streets for residential parking and lower neighboring property values. Separate nuisance item 19 in section 845.010 covers gravel driveways maintained so that gravel erodes into, or is placed in, a public street or a wetland, creek, pond or lake.