Owensboro, KY Parking Rules: Loading Zones (2026)

Section 25-137 sets the rules the city engineer must follow when establishing loading zones: no more than half of a block's total curb length can be reserved for loading zones within the central traffic district or any business district, and up to 100 feet of curb space can be reserved temporarily or in an emergency wherever public safety or convenience requires it. The city engineer considers primarily public safety and convenience when siting a zone at office buildings, department stores, or other private buildings. The section also creates a narrow downtown exception to the chapter's general double-parking ban in § 25-114: a commercial vehicle's driver may double-park to load or unload in the downtown core if no loading zone is available or occupied, two lanes of traffic are open in the same direction, and there is no unoccupied curb space within 100 feet on either side; double-parking is barred outright wherever only one lane is open, and even where allowed it cannot exceed twenty minutes.

Section 25-138 then restricts use of an established loading zone itself: no one may park there except to load or unload merchandise or passengers, and passenger loading or unloading in a zone is capped at three minutes. Together the two sections mean a delivery driver has a defined but time-boxed right to use curb space or, downtown, to double-park briefly, while any driver using a loading zone for ordinary parking is in violation as soon as the load-or-unload purpose ends.