Royal Oak, MI Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

Section 770-109, Off-street parking lot design and construction, opens by requiring that construction of any parking lot follow the chapter's requirements and be approved by the Building Official before a certificate of occupancy issues, with plans submitted showing grades, drainage, layout, and surfacing materials unless already covered by an approved site plan. Subsection A, amended by Ordinance No. 2019-11, sets the surfacing rule: parking lots, maneuvering aisles, driveways, and loading areas must be hard-surfaced with asphalt, concrete, or a similar impervious pavement, or with an acceptable pervious or permeable pavement such as porous asphalt, pervious concrete, or permeable interlocking pavers if the Zoning Administrator determines it is suitable.

The same subsection flatly prohibits loose aggregate, gravel, stone, unreinforced grass or sod, soil, and similar materials as a driveway or parking surface, and separately bars pervious or permeable pavement anywhere fuel or lubricants are dispensed directly into vehicles or where hazardous liquids could soak into the ground through it. All surfaces must be graded and drained to dispose of surface water under City ordinances and fully constructed before a certificate of occupancy is issued. Subsection D adds that driveways providing ingress and egress must sit at least 25 feet from any street intersection and may be no more than 25 feet wide in a residential zone or 30 feet wide elsewhere, measured at the property line.