Greensboro, NC Parking Rules: Preferential Parking Districts (2026)

The city council created the controlled-parking-area program to keep commuters from filling every space on streets zoned residential (Res) or Traditional Neighborhood (TN), per § 16-197. The traffic engineer studies a street on the city manager's initiative or on petition from a majority of households in the proposed area. on weekdays other than city holidays, parked vehicles fill 70 percent or more of legal on-street capacity (a legal space is defined as 20 linear feet) and at least 25 percent of those vehicles are not registered to a resident of the area, based on DMV registration records.

The city manager can also designate a new controlled residential parking area around a development projected to generate more than 1,500 daily vehicle trips that sits within a half-mile of an existing controlled area and is comparable in scale to development already surrounded by controlled parking, under § 16-199(c). In Traditional Neighborhood blocks mixing residential and commercial uses, § 16-199(d) allows one permit per use, plus one additional permit per 750 square feet of use, capped at three permits per use. Once an area is designated, the chief of police issues permits for a fiscal year (July 1 to June 30) at no charge to residents, lease-holding businesses, and their verified employees under § 16-200; renewal applications are due by August 15.

The city manager may also issue no-charge temporary permits to bona fide visitors. A permit does not reserve a specific space and does not exempt the holder from any other parking rule besides the two-hour limit. The chief of police may revoke a permit for violations of the division under § 16-202, and the holder must surrender it on written notice.