Cedar Rapids, IA Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Three separate parts of the Cedar Rapids Municipal Code govern what happens when a vehicle is taken without its owner's consent, and they answer different questions.

Private-property tows. Chapter 52A, the Cedar Rapids Tow Truck and Wrecker Code, applies to the operation of tow trucks and wreckers within the city limits. Its operative consumer provision is Section 52A.05(5): all towing and wrecker services shall notify the Cedar Rapids Police Department prior to towing a vehicle which has been either parked without permission or abandoned on private property and which the property owner, or the owner's agent or employee, has requested be towed, and shall submit to the Police Department on a daily basis a report of any and all such tows which have occurred on that day. The same section bars a service from knowingly towing or concealing a vehicle wanted by a law enforcement agency in a police investigation, keeps tow truck and wrecker businesses out of Agricultural and Rural and Residential zoning districts, allows no more than one tow truck or wrecker on a residentially zoned lot (and only up to a net legal carrying capacity of one and one-half tons), and forbids an operator with a vehicle in tow from parking on a residential lot or on any street within the city limits for more than one hour.

What Chapter 52A does not do is set rates. Sections 52A.03 and 52A.04 are printed in the code as repealed by Ordinance 50-00, and nothing replaced them. There is no Cedar Rapids maximum hookup charge, no daily storage cap, no drop fee for an owner who returns while the vehicle is still hooked, and no sign-posting standard for private lots. Iowa does not supply one either, so for a private-property tow the price is whatever the operator charges. The police notification duty is the local protection, and it is worth using: because the tow is reported to the Police Department the same day, a driver who returns to an empty space can call CRPD to learn who has the vehicle instead of hunting for a placard.

City tows for unpaid tickets. Under Section 61.137, a vehicle that has accumulated 5 or more unpaid parking tickets may be towed, but only if it is on a public street or in a public parking lot and in violation at the time. Impoundment happens only after certified-mail preseizure notice to the registered owner and every lienholder of record, stating the plate number, describing the tickets, and offering an administrative hearing before the Council's Designee if requested within 10 calendar days of the mailing date. Once the vehicle is taken, a notice of impoundment must go out by certified mail within 72 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The owner may then request a post-seizure hearing by filing with the Parking Violations Office within 21 calendar days of impoundment; that hearing must be held within 20 calendar days of the request, and the department that ordered the tow carries the burden of proving the vehicle was subject to it.

Civil seizure. Section 61.137A allows police to seize a vehicle used in connection with a listed offense, including operating on a suspended, revoked or barred license, operating under the influence, eluding an officer, a weapons offense, drug or paraphernalia possession, leaving the scene, or driving without proof of security against liability. The owner owes a $500.00 civil penalty plus all towing and storage. A preliminary probable-cause hearing is available only if the Police Department receives a written request within 24 hours of the seizure, and it is then scheduled no sooner than 24 hours and no later than 72 hours after that request, with notice by telephone and written confirmation no less than 12 hours before it starts. The vehicle can be released in the meantime on a cash bond of $500.00 plus the towing and storage fees. Separately, within 20 days of the seizure the Police Department must send written notice of the right to a final hearing; the owner or lienholder has 10 days from that notice to request one, and it is then held within 30 days of the request. The hearing officer shall not be an employee of the City. Weekends and holidays are excluded from every deadline in Section 61.137A.

Who sets the price. For city-ordered tows, Section 61.103(j) has the City Council take bids from private operators for schedules of towing and storage fees and designate a successful bidder, and that bidder is authorized to retain the vehicle until the bid fees are paid. Section 61.103(l) and Section 61.137(h) each add a separate City administrative fee for towing, set in an amount fixed by the City Manager, which must be paid before the vehicle is released from the City's custody. Section 61.137A(j) ties civil-seizure towing and storage fees to the same Section 61.103 schedule. The dollar figures therefore live in a Council-accepted bid and a City Manager fee schedule rather than in the code text, so ask the Parking Violations Office for the current amounts.