Abilene, TX Parking Rules: RV & Boat Parking (2026)

Section 18-195 of the Code of Ordinances treats trailers, semitrailers, and mobile recreation equipment the same way section 18-194 treats inoperable cars: 48 hours is the hard limit on public property. The section defines mobile recreation equipment broadly to cover any boat, any trailer built primarily to haul a boat, and any trailer, semitrailer, or self-propelled vehicle designed and equipped for human habitation, whether parked permanently or just temporarily, which sweeps in travel trailers, fifth-wheels, and motorhomes along with boat trailers. The rule only reaches public property, meaning a public street, alley, sidewalk, highway, or other City-owned property; it does not regulate parking an RV or boat trailer in a private driveway or side yard, which falls instead under the City's separate residential storage and nuisance standards.

Once the 48-hour clock on public property runs out, the ordinance declares the continued presence of the equipment illegal and a public nuisance in itself, independent of any additional traffic obstruction. That nuisance declaration lets the City act under its general nuisance-abatement authority in addition to the Article X parking rules, and it applies equally to a boat left at the curb after a weekend outing and to a camper stored long-term on a City street. The section dates to a 1981 amendment and has not been updated since, so the 48-hour figure has stayed fixed for more than four decades.