Decatur, AL Parking Rules: Loading Zones (2026)

Section 25-17 of the Code of Decatur, Alabama is short: in each business and industrial district each structure erected or altered after June 3, 1958, must be provided with off-street loading and unloading facilities as specified in the district schedule set out in sections 25-10 through 25-12. The section does not list hours or dimensions itself. The numbers and placement rules live in the schedule rows for each district.

The business district schedule in § 25-11 prints a loading row for each district. In B-1 Local Shopping District, the row reads that the use shall use the required rear or side yard for loading and unloading. In B-2 General Business, the row requires space for loading and unloading for structures hereafter erected or altered when the structure is not on a lot adjoining a public or private alley. Because the requirement attaches to erected or altered structures, an existing building that is expanded or converted picks up the obligation at that point.

Loading space competes with parking space for the same lot, and § 25-16 protects both. Whenever two or more uses are made of the same property, the parking requirements for each apply, and § 25-14 keeps required open space and yards from being counted twice for different buildings. Site plans in the Decatur redevelopment district also treat loading areas as something to screen: the buffer berm along 7th Avenue SE is meant to leave no parking lot, dumpster or loading area visible from adjoining properties. Residential districts are outside § 25-17, which speaks only to business and industrial districts.