Dearborn Heights, MI Parking Rules: Street Parking Limits (2026)

Dearborn Heights City Code § 32-537 opens Division 8 of the Uniform Traffic Code's stopping, standing, and parking rules with a single long list of places a vehicle cannot be parked, twenty-four in all, unless parking there is necessary to avoid conflicting with other traffic or is done in compliance with the law or a police officer's or traffic-control device's directions. The list starts with the basics that generate the most complaints: a sidewalk, in front of a public or private driveway, within an intersection, within fifteen feet of a fire hydrant, on a crosswalk, and within twenty feet of a crosswalk or, where there is none, within fifteen feet of the property lines at an intersection.

It keeps going with less obvious spots: within thirty feet of a stop sign or flashing beacon, alongside a safety zone, within fifty feet of a railroad crossing, within twenty feet of a fire-station driveway, at a place marked by an official no-parking sign, in a handicapper space without the required certificate, plate, or placard described in section 32-46, in a space where the parking meter has expired, in a way that blocks an alley, and on the lawn extension between the curb and sidewalk on a street the city or its designated agent has not approved for parking there.

The handicapper-space provision specifically requires displaying a certificate of identification issued under section 675(5) of the Michigan Vehicle Code, a special registration plate under section 803d, or an equivalent from another state, before the space can be used. Motorbuses get a narrow carve-out in section 32-538, letting them stop at several of the same listed spots, driveways, hydrants, and crosswalk buffers, to take on or drop off passengers. Every violation of section 32-537 is a civil infraction rather than a misdemeanor, so a Dearborn Heights police officer issuing a ticket for blocking a driveway or parking too close to a hydrant is writing a civil-infraction citation, not filing a criminal charge.