Durham, NC Parking Rules: RV & Boat Parking (2026)

Subsection E of Sec. 3, Vehicle Parking Permitted in Residential Districts and Uses, is the operative rule for recreational storage: "Recreational vehicles such as boats, camper trailers, and utility trailers shall be stored off the street and shall be located to the rear of the primary structure, or on a driveway and parked at least 25 feet from the public right-of-way. " The driveway option, storing an RV or boat trailer on the driveway itself, as long as it sits 25 feet back from the right-of-way, was added through text amendment case TC250020, which the Durham City Council and the Durham County Board of Commissioners both adopted to give homeowners more flexibility than the older rule that required rear-yard storage only.

The provision sits inside the joint City-County UDO, so the same 25-foot driveway standard applies in the city and in the unincorporated county; Durham City-County Planning administers it either way. D, grass, bare earth, and landscaped areas are not an acceptable parking or storage surface under Sec. A. For an apartment or condo complex, the ordinance shifts responsibility to the site plan: the development must designate a specific boat-and-trailer area rather than leaving residents to store units wherever they find space.