Westland, MI Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Westland does not run a long towing chapter. Its own rules occupy two short sections of Chapter 98, plus the fee tables in Chapter 46, and the rest is carried by the Michigan Uniform Traffic Code and Michigan Vehicle Code, both adopted by reference at Secs. 98-31 and 98-34 (the Uniform Traffic Code as made effective October 30, 2002, the Vehicle Code as amended December 1, 2005, with future amendments deemed adopted).

The tow power itself is Sec. 98-6(a). A vehicle parked in a place or manner against the Code is declared a nuisance, and it may be removed and conveyed by or under the direction of the Westland Police Department to a place of safekeeping. The section adds that the owner or operator may still be ticketed for the underlying parking violation, so the tow is not a substitute for the citation. Sec. 98-6(b) is the notice duty: within 24 hours after the vehicle is taken into custody, the police department shall notify the Secretary of State. That filing is what starts the state process under the Michigan Vehicle Code, including the owner right to request a district court hearing to contest the tow and the towing fee liability rules.

Sec. 98-7, added by Ord. No. 29-W-36 on June 6, 2011, is the money side. Whenever a vehicle is impounded or towed by or at the direction of the Westland Police Department, whether under this Code, the Michigan Vehicle Code, the Uniform Traffic Code or other state law, the owner owes the city an administrative impound/towing fee set by the administrative fee resolution, covering processing the vehicle, providing the required notices, and creating and maintaining records. The Sec. 46-2 police department fee table prints the figures: $88.00 per car if claimed, $18.00 per car if unclaimed, a $25.00 per day storage fee for vehicles kept on police department property, and a separate $383.00 OWI recovery fee. Those are city charges and sit on top of whatever the wrecker company bills for the tow and its own storage.

Two other Westland provisions authorize a tow. Sec. 98-2(g) makes unauthorized use of a handicapper parking space in a shopping center lot of three acres or more subject to towing away and impoundment at the owner expense and liability, processed as a civil infraction under 1949 PA 300. Sec. 98-8(d) allows any vehicle parked contrary to a mayoral weather emergency restriction, declared when ice or snow reaches roughly four inches, to be towed away at the risk and expense of the owner.

Small vehicles have their own pound rules. Under Sec. 98-65 a violation of the motorcycle, motor-driven cycle, minibike, special purpose vehicle and go-cart article is a nuisance per se that an officer may abate by removing the vehicle to the motor vehicle pound. To get it back the owner must furnish evidence of identity and ownership, sign a receipt, and pay the fee at Sec. 46-1(46), which is $18.00 for the first 24-hour period and $5.00 for each additional day or fraction of a day in the pound.

What the Code does not contain is worth stating. There is no Westland wrecker or tow operator license, no police rotation list, no storage lot standards, and no cap on private towing rates. Sec. 78-35 also carves abandoned motor vehicles out of the city unclaimed property article, leaving their disposition and sale to state law and other ordinance.