Boulder, CO Parking Rules: RV & Boat Parking (2026)

Subsection 9-9-6(f) of Boulder's Land Use Code regulates parking and storage of recreational vehicular equipment, defined broadly to include travel trailers, tent trailers, pickup campers or coaches, motorized dwellings, boats and boat trailers, snow vehicles, cycle trailers, utility trailers and vans, and horse trailers or vans, in residential districts. The equipment must be stored on private property no closer than 18 inches to any existing or proposed public sidewalk and must not project into the public right-of-way. On corner lots, any such equipment taller than 36 inches cannot sit within the sight triangle formed by points 30 feet back from the property-line intersection along each frontage.

Travel trailers, campers, motorized dwellings, and vans cannot be used for business, living, or housekeeping purposes on a residential lot; that use is limited to an approved mobile home park or a campground with sanitary facilities. Anything stored outdoors, including a boat and its trailer, must be adequately blocked, tied down, or otherwise secured so wind cannot move it, and it must be kept in a safe, functioning condition for its intended use, not simply abandoned in place. These storage standards are separate from Boulder's on-street parking rules: Section 7-6-24(b) limits how long a camper, motor home, or trailer can sit on a public street, 48 hours at the owner's frontage, or a permit, while Section 9-9-6(f) governs storage on the resident's own private lot.

A homeowner keeping a boat trailer in a side yard, for example, must satisfy the setback, sight-triangle, and tie-down rules of 9-9-6(f) even though the vehicle never touches the street.