Placentia, CA Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

Placentia Municipal Code § 23.78.150(d) bars any vehicle, recreational vehicle or recreational apparatus from parking on an unpaved surface within the front yard. The single exception is an all-weather surface, and that surface is subject to review and approval by the director, meaning the director of the development services department as defined in § 23.78.140(b). Section 23.78.155(a) applies the same unpaved-surface bar and the same all-weather exception to side and rear yards.

Subsection (e) limits how much of the front yard can be given over to cars. Parking and driveway areas within the entire front yard area cannot exceed sixty (60) percent of the yard area. For a lot at the end of a cul-de-sac with a lot frontage of less than forty (40) feet, the parking and driveway areas can be paved up to a maximum of eighty (80) percent. Both limits are subject to the director's review and approval.

Subsection (g) controls widening. Additional curb cutting for driveway widening is prohibited if reasonable access can be made from existing driveways. The public works department has discretion to waive that prohibition where extenuating circumstances make widening an existing driveway necessary.

These standards sit inside the City of Placentia's recreational vehicle section, so several neighboring subsections apply to those vehicles in particular: a minimum six (6) foot setback from the front property line, a maximum of one recreational vehicle or apparatus in the front yard, and parking at a perpendicular angle to the front property line. Section 23.78.145 ties the recreational vehicle standards to property designated single-family residential or located in low-density single-family zoning districts. Subsection (k) separately requires the entire front yard and street side yard to stay free of construction and automotive materials or parts, trash, inoperative motor vehicles and junk. Where the HMR (HAMER) overlay zone is established on a property, § 23.78.160 replaces §§ 23.78.150 and 23.78.155 with its own table.