Bellingham, WA Parking Rules: Oversized Vehicle Parking (2026)

Bellingham's oversized-vehicle framework combines several BMC chapters. BMC 11.33.060 is the operative on-street rule and applies the seventy-two-hour continuous-parking limit to motorhomes, travel trailers, boat trailers, utility trailers, cars, trucks, vans, buses, motorcycles, and motor scooters - meaning long-term storage of an oversized vehicle on a city street is not allowed. BMC Chapter 11.38 (Residential Parking Zone) supplies an indirect 'oversized' cap on the on-street permit side: under BMC 11.38.030, RPZ permits may be issued only to persons who reside in legal dwelling units within the RPZ and own or control a non-commercial motor vehicle not exceeding ten thousand pounds gross vehicle weight, so a larger commercial vehicle cannot use a residential permit to extend stay in WWU-area RPZ streets. BMC 11.63.140 (Arterial street system for trucks) sets the heaviest-vehicle rule: trucks or other vehicles licensed for twenty-eight thousand pounds or over shall restrict their travel upon the other public ways of the city to only make pickups or deliveries of merchandise or freight to points not accessible by a truck route, and travel off the route system, including to terminals or garages, shall be over the shortest practicable route between the destination and the nearest entrance or exit to the truck route. BMC Title 20 (Land Use Development) governs the storage of cargo containers, semi-trailers, RVs, and other oversized vehicles on private property in residential zones. On the right-of-way more generally, RCW 46.55.085 (tag-and-tow window of twenty-four hours after tagging) and RCW 46.61.570 distance setbacks (fifteen feet from a fire hydrant, twenty feet from a crosswalk at an intersection, no parking on sidewalks, in intersections, or in front of driveways) apply citywide. Enforcement: Bellingham Parking Services (360) 778-7780.