Coral Gables, FL Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Article V of Chapter 74 is the wrecker service article, and Sec. 74-272 fixes its reach: it regulates only nonconsensual towing, meaning a vehicle recovered, towed or removed from private property without the consent of the registered owner. Consensual towing, where a driver calls a specific company and signs a private contract with it, is expressly outside the article. Sec. 07, and Sec. 74-275 then adopts the state standard wholesale rather than writing a Coral Gables rate table. The one place the City does set prices is its own rotation: Sec.

74-281(f) provides that the city commission shall establish towing and storage rates by resolution, prohibits a contracted company from charging more, and allows only the fees identified as permissible in the request for proposals. That covers city-initiated tows, not the private-lot tow a resident is most likely to face. The private metered-lot rules are the distinctive Coral Gables layer. Sec. 74-85(a) bars a tow unless the vehicle blocks another parked vehicle from exiting its designated space or blocks the lot entrance or exit, which means an expired meter alone is not a lawful reason to tow.

Sec. 00. A lot that boots must print the non-emergency police dispatch number on the signage required by Sec. 74-84(b) and must give the parking and police departments the ability to remove the boot when the operator misses the ten-minute window. Sec. 74-84(b) also requires each private lot to post its rates, a working phone number and e-mail address, notice of a 15-minute grace period on entry, and a citation to Secs. 74-84, 74-85 and 74-86. Sec. 74-84(d) declares any non-city issued ticket placed on a car in a private lot null, void and unenforceable.

On the release side, Sec. 74-281 sets terms binding the wrecker companies on the CGPD rotation. m. on Saturdays, with Sundays and holidays excluded. Companies must accept cash, cashier check, money order and at least two major credit or debit cards. Owners of vehicles stolen and recovered within the City are not charged for the first eight hours of storage, storage hours count only when the release office is open, and no storage fee at all may be charged if the vehicle is stored less than six hours before release.

Sec. 74-281(t) lets the City collect a separate administrative fee for each vehicle released, set in Sec. 1-8, to defray ownership searches and recordkeeping. G. Kimbrough Public Safety Building, as must the company business location and its wreckers. A police impound is handled under Article VII rather than Article V. Sec. 74-344 allows seizure where an officer has probable cause that the vehicle held a controlled substance or cannabis, was used in a drug purchase or sale, or facilitated prostitution, assignation or lewdness. Sec. 74-345 requires written notice by hand delivery to the owner, or within five working days by hand delivery or certified mail if the owner is unavailable, and requires the notice to advise the owner of the right to a preliminary hearing.

Under Sec. 74-347 the owner has ten days from receipt of that notice to request the hearing in writing from the police chief, and the hearing must be scheduled within 96 hours before a city special master, with the City carrying the probable cause burden. A final hearing, if one is needed, must be held no later than 30 days after seizure. Sec. 74-348 gives a further appeal to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit within 30 days of the final order. One drafting quirk is worth flagging in the Sec.

1-7 penalty schedule: it lists the private-lot towing fine against CC 74-87(a) and the booting fine against CC 74-88(b), while the substantive rules print at Secs. 74-85 and 74-86.