Little Chute, WI Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Little Chute is a village, and its towing power sits inside Chapter 26 of the Village of Little Chute Code of Ordinances rather than in a standalone tow ordinance. Sec. 26-74 begins by declaring that any vehicle parked, stopped or standing upon a highway or public parking lot in violation of the parking article is a hazard to traffic and public safety. That declaration is what unlocks removal. An officer may first require the operator in charge to move the vehicle to a lawful spot or to private or public parking or storage premises, and after issuing a citation for the illegal parking of an unattended vehicle the officer may move the vehicle to a position where parking is permitted.

When the village hands the job to a private operator, Sec. 26-74(d) limits who may take the vehicle. The officer may order a motor carrier holding a permit to perform vehicle towing services, a licensed motor vehicle salvage dealer, or a licensed motor vehicle dealer who performs vehicle towing services, and the vehicle may be stored in a public storage garage, on rental parking grounds, or at the towing operator's own facility. The code names no village impound lot and sets no tow rate. Sec. 26-74(e) uses an actual-cost standard instead: the owner or operator of a vehicle so removed pays the actual cost of moving, towing and storage, which for a private carrier or dealer means the actual charges regularly paid for such services, and for a public storage garage or rental facility means the customary charges. The one release protection written into the section is documentary. Upon payment, a receipt shall be issued to the owner of the vehicle for the towing or storage charge.

Most Little Chute tows trace back to two parking rules. Sec. 26-70(b) bans parking on any village street between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. from December 1 through April 1 once restriction signs are posted at or reasonably near the corporate limits under Wis. Stat. 349.13, with exceptions for emergency vehicles and for physicians, chiropractors, county health nurses, nurse practitioners and physician's assistants actually providing emergency services. Sec. 26-70(c) covers a declared snow emergency, proclaimed by the village administrator or, in his absence, the village president or a designated trustee. For a snow emergency violation, Sec. 26-131(d)(2)b gives the police department authority to have the vehicle removed at the owner's expense, the one place in the code where towing is tied directly to a named violation. Other time limits that can put a car in front of a wrecker are the 12-hour cap on continuous parking in a municipal lot, the same 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. ban inside municipal lots, the 24-consecutive-hour limit anywhere on a street or public property, and the posted 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. ban on Industrial Park streets signed at the Moasis Drive, Eisenhower Drive, Lamers Drive and Bohm Drive entrances.

Two other sections feed vehicles into Sec. 26-74. Sec. 26-65(c) treats a vehicle parked within four feet of either side of a private drive, alley or fire lane as unreasonably restricting access, and on an officer's discovery or on complaint by the owner of the blocked access the chief of police may order the vehicle towed at the risk and expense of its owner. Sec. 26-75(a) gives a partially dismantled, nonoperable, wrecked, junked or discarded vehicle 24 hours on a street, highway or parking lot after the police department places a notice conspicuously on the vehicle and mails or serves written notice on the owner or the occupant in charge of the premises. A vehicle still there after those 24 hours is declared a public nuisance and removed as provided in Sec. 26-74.

The tow bill is separate from the ticket. Under Sec. 26-131(d)(2), a parking violation not otherwise listed carries a forfeiture of not less than $20.00, rising to $35.00 if it is not paid within ten days of the offense, while a disabled-parking violation runs $75.00 and rises to $100.00 on the same ten-day clock. Unpaid forfeitures for the Sec. 26-70 parking bans can also lead to suspension of the vehicle registration, and a nonmoving citation left unpaid for ten days is forwarded by the clerk of municipal court to the village attorney for prosecution. Amounts for the remaining offenses are not printed in the ordinance text; the code points to Appendix C, the Village Fees, Deposits and Charges Schedule, and to the general penalty at Sec. 1-12. Vehicles taken as abandoned rather than as illegally parked run on a separate track at Sec. 26-243 through Sec. 26-248, the village's implementation of the state abandoned-vehicle scheme. Chapter 26 carries no provision on nonconsensual towing from private property, so a tow from a Little Chute store or apartment lot is a question of Wisconsin state law rather than of village ordinance.