West Des Moines, IA Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

West Des Moines City Code section 9-15-4(B)(1), in the Off-Street Parking and Loading chapter of the Zoning Title, requires that ordinary passenger vehicles parked at a residence sit entirely on paved surfaces on private property, with the entire length and width of the vehicle on pavement, not just the wheels or a portion of the driveway. Gravel driveways or parking pads that predate September 1, 1996 may stay in use, but the code caps total pavement-plus-gravel parking area at 20 percent of the lot's square footage, so an older gravel area cannot be expanded once it reaches that citywide ceiling.

Beyond the paving requirement, the same subsection limits how much of a single-family front yard a driveway and its associated parking can cover: paved driveways and adjoining off-street parking within the front yard cannot exceed 50 percent of the area between the front plane of the house and the public right-of-way, which keeps homeowners from turning most of a front lawn into a parking pad. The rule sits alongside the chapter's 20-foot setback for parking from an alley or street on single-family lots under section 9-15-4(B)(2), with a narrow exception that a garage accessed from the alley may have a vehicle parked directly in front of the garage door on that required 20-foot access strip, so long as no part of the vehicle overhangs the alley or right-of-way.

Development Services administers these standards as part of site plan and zoning review, and Title 1's municipal infraction process, not a criminal court, is used to enforce them against a noncompliant homeowner.