Fort Collins, CO Parking Rules: Snow Removal Parking Rules (2026)

Section 24-96(a) of the Fort Collins Municipal Code authorizes the City Manager, after consulting staff, to declare a snow emergency because of falling snow, sleet, freezing rain, or a National Weather Service forecast that warrants it. Under Section 24-96(b), the City Manager announces the emergency to local radio and television stations and, where feasible, a newspaper of general circulation, and the announcement states the exact time parking prohibitions take effect. Section 24-96(c) is the operative parking ban: once a snow emergency is declared, parking of motor vehicles is prohibited on every street designated a snow emergency route, and those routes are the ones listed in the City's Snow Removal Handbook, marked with posted traffic signs.

The Section separately bans parking on any state highway roadway or shoulder within the City while snow removal operations are actually underway there, regardless of emergency-route designation. Section 24-96(d) gives the City Engineer authority to have any vehicle, attended or unattended, towed or otherwise removed from a snow emergency route without delay and at the owner's expense, with the only exception being emergency vehicles. Section 24-96(e) ends the emergency either by the City Manager's announcement or automatically once an emergency route's roadway is substantially clear of snow curb to curb, at which point normal parking resumes without a separate announcement being required.