Sarasota County, FL Parking Rules: RV & Boat Parking (2026)

UDC Sec. 124-120(d), Parking, Storage, or Use of Certain Recreational Vehicles and Equipment, defines the category broadly: boats, boats on trailers, empty trailers, jet skis on a trailer, travel trailers, camping trailers, truck campers, motor homes, private motor coaches, van conversions licensed by the State of Florida, and even swamp buggies and other licensed off-road vehicles. Unlike commercial vehicles, recreational vehicles are not subject to the chapter's height and weight restrictions. They may be parked and stored in residential zoning districts, except where a district specifically prohibits it, but three conditions apply every time: the vehicle must be operational with current license tags, it must sit on the property of its owner or a resident tenant, and it must be the personal property of that owner or tenant, not a customer's or a business's.

Parking or storing a recreational vehicle or boat on a public right-of-way, or on vacant property, is flatly prohibited. Storage is also capped by count: no lot may hold more than two recreational vehicles stored outside a completely enclosed building. None of them may be used for living, sleeping, housekeeping, or business purposes while stored, and none may be connected to utility service except briefly, in preparation for departure. The same subsection separately addresses private aircraft: in the OUA, OUR, and OUE Districts, an aircraft may sit outside a building if a private landing strip is available on the property or nearby platted land, provided access does not run over a public right-of-way; in RE-1 and RE-2, only one aircraft may be stored outside and only in a rear or side yard; and in RE-3, RSF, and RMF Districts, no aircraft may be stored outside an enclosed building at all.