Richardson, TX Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

City code section 13-1 regulates where vehicles, trailers, RVs and boats may sit on residential property. Under subsection (b), the owner, occupant or person in charge of property zoned residential, duplex, residential duplex or apartment cannot let a motor vehicle, truck or motorcycle stand in the front yard, or in the side yard of a corner lot that abuts a street, unless the vehicle sits on an approved parking surface. Richardson's zoning ordinance defines that surface precisely: a continuous slab of Portland cement concrete at least four inches thick, reinforced with No.

3 rebar on 24-inch centers, or an equivalent of clay-fired paving brick or pavestone approved by the city engineer (nonresidential lots require five-inch concrete). Subsections (c) through (e) extend the same rule, with no surface exception at all, to recreational vehicles, house trailers, mobile homes and farm machinery parked on vacant or unimproved residential lots. An RV, boat or similar recreational vehicle may still be kept in a side or rear yard if screened from the street by a six-foot wood fence or an equivalent shrub wall reaching six feet or the vehicle's height.

Owners get four loading/unloading occasions a year of up to 72 continuous hours each, and a separate allowance of four seven-day stays a year, each spaced at least seven days apart. A temporary on-street parking permit, capped at two weeks, is available from the city manager's office for documented need; parking on the street without one is itself prohibited. Recreational vehicles can never be used as living quarters except as an emergency shelter approved by the city manager.