Fresno County, CA Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Chapter 11.46 of the Ordinance Code of Fresno County is the County's only impound chapter that sets its own clock and its own release procedure. Section 11.46.010 says it is enacted under Article XI, Section 7 of the California Constitution and Section 22659.5 of the Vehicle Code, so it is a nuisance-abatement seizure power rather than a general parking tow. Section 11.46.030 declares a vehicle a public nuisance when it is used in pimping (Penal Code 266h), pandering (266i), solicitation (647(b)), or dumping commercial quantities of waste (374.3(h)), and section 11.46.020 fixes that last term at an amount "equal to or in excess of one cubic yard," excluding household waste dumped at the person's own residence.

Seizure is neither discretionary nor automatic. Section 11.46.040 requires both a valid arrest of the driver and a prior conviction of the same offense within the past three years. As printed in the code that section cites Penal Code "sections 226h, 226i," while section 11.46.030 cites 266h and 266i, so the two have to be read together. Once seized, section 11.46.050 caps the impoundment at thirty days and counts any storage time toward that thirty days rather than adding to it.

The notice and hearing rules in section 11.46.060 are where the owner's leverage sits. The Sheriff-Coroner must mail or personally deliver notice to both the legal and registered owners within two working days, at the addresses obtained from the DMV, and the notice must carry the impound location, the make and license plate and mileage where available, the authority for the removal, and a statement that a hearing must be requested in person, in writing or by telephone within ten days of the notice date. The hearing goes ahead within 48 hours of that request, weekends and holidays excluded, before a hearing officer who under section 11.46.020 may be the Sheriff-Coroner or a salaried county employee but never the officer who directed the seizure, and it runs under the evidence rules in section 2.81.090 of Title 2. Missing either deadline costs the County money rather than the owner, and section 11.46.060(H) requires the County to keep a published 24-hour telephone number for impound and hearing information.

Early release is spelled out rather than left to discretion. Section 11.46.070 lists six grounds on which the registered owner gets the vehicle back before day 30, and where the arrest lacked probable cause section 11.46.070(B) makes neither the arrestee nor the registered owner responsible for the towing and impound charges. Section 11.46.080 gives lenders, dealers, credit unions and other lienholders a parallel release on payment of fees and production of an assignment, a release of liability running to the County and the Sheriff's Office, photo identification, and a repossession certificate, security agreement or title. Nothing may be notarized, no hearing may be demanded of them as a condition, no lien sale processing fee may be charged if they redeem before the 15th day, and no Vehicle Code section 22850.5 administrative charge may be collected from them unless they voluntarily asked for a hearing. Section 11.46.090 does the same for a rental car agency, which may put the car back into service but may not rent another vehicle to that driver until the 30 days run out.

On money, the code delegates rather than fixes. Section 11.46.110 authorizes the County and Sheriff-Coroner to impose administrative charges "equal to the administrative costs" under Vehicle Code section 22850.5, but states no dollar amount anywhere in the chapter, so the release fee is set outside the ordinance code. Tow and storage rates are delegated the same way: section 11.46.100(D) refers to the Sheriff-Coroner "making agreements with towing companies on rates," which puts the rotation rates in those agreements rather than in any published schedule in the code. Separately, section 11.28.020 lets the county administrative officer have vehicles removed from county-owned grounds, including the Courthouse Park frontages of Tulare and Fresno Streets, to a public garage at the owner's expense, with towing and storage payable before release and warning signs required first.

Reach: these are county ordinances and they operate in unincorporated Fresno County, not inside the incorporated cities. Section 1.04.020(Q) excludes streets, alleys and roads within any incorporated city or town of the county from the code's definition of "street" unless specifically included, and Title 11 carves city territory out by name elsewhere, for example the speed limits in section 11.24.090 that except the portions within the City of Fresno and the City of Parlier. A vehicle towed in the City of Fresno or in Clovis is handled under that city's own code and its own tow contracts, not Chapter 11.46.