Yes, you can usually park an RV in your driveway in California, but whether you can keep it there, how long, and under what conditions is almost entirely a matter of local law. State law does little more than keep your rig from hanging over the sidewalk and give cities the authority to write their own oversized-vehicle rules. The restrictions that actually govern your driveway come from your city’s municipal code and, if you have one, your homeowners association.
What State Law Actually Says
California has no statewide ban on driveway RV storage. What it has is a thin baseline. Vehicle Code Section 22500 makes it illegal to park any vehicle so that its body extends over a sidewalk.1California Legislative Information. California Code VEH 22500 – Stopping, Standing, and Parking If your driveway is short and the tail of a 35-foot motorhome overhangs the public walkway, you’re in violation no matter what your city allows.
Vehicle Code Section 22507 then hands cities and counties explicit authority to regulate vehicles six feet or taller (load included) on designated streets and within 100 feet of intersections.2California Legislative Information. California Code VEH 22507 That’s the hook every local oversized-vehicle ordinance hangs on, which is why the rules on your block can look nothing like the ones two cities over.
Health and Safety Code Section 18010 defines a recreational vehicle as a motorhome, travel trailer, truck camper, or camping trailer built on a single chassis with less than 320 square feet of living space.3California Legislative Information. California Code HSC 18010 – Recreational Vehicle Definition That classification matters because many local codes impose storage rules on RVs that wouldn’t touch an ordinary passenger car or pickup.
What Your City Controls
Your zoning code is where the enforceable restrictions live. Common ones to look for are duration limits, screening requirements, size thresholds, surface rules, and permit systems. Specifics vary enough between cities that pulling up your own municipal code is the only reliable way to know.
Duration and Screening
Many cities limit how long an RV can sit in one spot before you need to move it or hide it behind a barrier. Selma treats any RV left in place for more than 48 hours as long-term storage and requires it to be screened from public view by a wall or fence matching the main house.4City of Selma. RVs, Boats and Trailers: What You Need to Know Walls there can go up to 15 feet, but the RV itself can’t exceed the fence height.
Other cities use permits instead of outright duration caps. Fountain Valley issues 36-hour loading and unloading permits and 24-hour visitor permits for residents who need to stage an RV temporarily.5The City of Fountain Valley. Recreation Vehicle and Trailer Parking Permits The principle behind both approaches is the same: cities distinguish temporarily staging a rig for a trip from permanently storing one in plain sight.
Size, Surface, and Permits
Local codes commonly define an oversized vehicle as anything longer than 22 feet, wider than 7 feet, or taller than 7 feet. Artesia uses those exact dimensions and adds a 6,000-pound weight threshold.6ecode360. City of Artesia Code of Ordinances – Chapter 4 TRAFFIC – Article 8 Oversized Vehicle Parking Exceeding any one of those triggers the oversized-vehicle rules.
Most cities also require stored vehicles to sit on a paved surface such as concrete or asphalt rather than on a lawn or dirt. Selma spells it out: no parking on grass, dirt, or any unpaved surface visible from the street.4City of Selma. RVs, Boats and Trailers: What You Need to Know On the other end of the spectrum, Manhattan Beach doesn’t require any permit for an oversized vehicle parked on your own property.7City of Manhattan Beach. Oversized Vehicle Parking Permit Program and Regulations The range is that wide.
The 72-Hour Rule Is About the Street, Not the Driveway
One of the most common misunderstandings is the 72-hour parking rule. It applies to public streets, not to your driveway. Vehicle Code Section 22651(k) lets cities cite or tow any vehicle that stays in one place on a public road for 72 or more consecutive hours.8California Legislative Information. California Code VEH 22651 Los Angeles enforces this directly, and no sign is required for it to apply.9Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Operations and Support
If you’re parking on the street and shuffling the RV every few days, that’s the rule you’re working around. If you’re parking on your own driveway, the time limits come from your city’s zoning ordinance, and those limits are often shorter than 72 hours. Knowing which rule applies to your situation saves a lot of confusion.
You Can’t Live in a Driveway RV
Across most of California, using a driveway RV as a place to sleep or live is prohibited. San Diego County’s planning department states plainly that RVs are not approved for permanent habitation on private lots, and even temporary trailer occupancy is limited to narrow exceptions such as housing a construction worker during a home build or a health-care-related use.10County of San Diego Planning and Development Services. County of San Diego Types of Accessory Units
A few cities carve out brief exceptions. San Luis Obispo allows a driveway RV to house guests for up to seven days per month, but the vehicle cannot discharge waste into the city sewer, and no hose, cord, or wire can run from the RV to the house.11City of San Luis Obispo. San Luis Obispo Municipal Code 17.86.210 – Recreational Vehicles Use as Dwelling Parked on a Private Property Connecting water, sewer, or electrical utilities to a driveway RV usually requires permits where it’s allowed at all, and many cities read permanent hookups as evidence of an unauthorized dwelling.
HOA Rules and the New Fine Cap
If your home is in a community governed by a homeowners association, the CC&Rs are a separate layer on top of city rules. Many HOAs ban RVs, boats, and trailers from driveways entirely, or from anywhere visible from the street. Even if your city would let you park, your association can prohibit it through architectural standards you agreed to when you bought the property.
What changed recently is how much an HOA can fine you. As of June 30, 2025, California Civil Code Section 5850 caps HOA fines at $100 per violation. Boards can no longer tack on late fees or interest beyond that amount. The exception is for violations that create a health or safety risk, where the board must make a written finding in an open meeting to justify a higher penalty. Associations that used to impose fines of several hundred dollars for a parking violation can’t do that anymore.
Enforcement on streets adjacent to the community is a separate question. If the streets are maintained by the city with municipal funds, they’re public streets, and the association’s authority to enforce parking rules on them is legally questionable. Vehicle Code Section 22658(a)(1) also requires specific signage at entrances and in parking areas before an association can authorize a tow, and a missing sign makes the tow unenforceable.
What to Check Before You Park
Pull your CC&Rs and look for sections on vehicle storage, architectural standards, and oversized vehicles. If the CC&Rs are silent on RVs, the board may still have adopted parking rules under its rulemaking authority, so request any supplemental rules and the current fine schedule. Knowing the rules before the RV arrives is cheaper than learning them from a violation notice.
Coastal Zone Properties
If your home sits in California’s Coastal Zone, there’s an extra regulatory layer. The California Coastal Act gives the Coastal Commission authority over land-use changes that affect shoreline access and coastal views.12California Coastal Commission. Public Resources Code Division 20 California Coastal Act Whether permanently parking an RV on a coastal lot amounts to a “development” that requires a Coastal Development Permit is fact-specific, but if the vehicle blocks public sightlines or changes how the property is used, the Commission can assert jurisdiction.
Penalties under Public Resources Code Section 30820 run from $500 to $30,000 per violation, with intentional violations drawing $1,000 to $15,000 per day for as long as they continue. Public access violations can carry administrative penalties up to $11,250 per day for up to five years.13California Coastal Commission. California Coastal Commission Enforcement Program Those numbers dwarf ordinary parking citations, so coastal homeowners should verify compliance before assuming driveway storage is routine.
Registration and Operability
Some cities require a driveway RV to carry current DMV registration even while it sits unused. Lemoore’s code is explicit: the vehicle must have valid registration tied to a resident of the property, and it cannot be on Planned Non-Operation (PNO) status with the DMV.14La Puente, CA Code of Ordinances. Lemoore Municipal Code 6-8-3 – Private Property Parking and Storage PNO saves registration fees by telling the DMV you won’t drive the vehicle on public roads, but it can simultaneously put you out of compliance with local storage rules.
Even where a city has no specific registration requirement, keeping the vehicle from becoming a nuisance matters. Flat tires, visible fluid leaks, and obvious deterioration draw code enforcement complaints from neighbors, and those complaints are often how storage violations get noticed in the first place.
Setbacks and Corner-Lot Visibility
Beyond whether you can park, zoning codes dictate where on your property you can park. Setback rules require the vehicle to sit a minimum distance from property lines, with distances that vary by city. The more consequential restriction is the visibility triangle at corner lots, a triangular zone at the intersection of streets or driveways that must stay clear so drivers can see oncoming traffic.15La Puente, CA Code of Ordinances. La Puente Code 10.24.030 – Vision Clearance Triangle at Intersections
In La Puente, nothing taller than 42 inches is allowed within the visibility triangle on a corner lot. A Class A motorhome in a corner driveway can easily violate that rule, and the city can order it moved regardless of whether the surface and duration rules are otherwise satisfied. If you’re on a corner, measure before you commit.
What a Violation Actually Costs
The cost of ignoring the rules runs well past a routine ticket. Towing an RV is dramatically more expensive than towing a car. In Los Angeles, the 2026 rate for towing a medium-duty motorhome (10,001 to 26,000 pounds) starts at $829, with daily impound storage of $73 to $119 depending on length.16Official Police Garage. Towing and Storage Rates – Los Angeles A week in impound can easily top $1,500. Heavy-duty vehicles cost more, starting at $390 for the first hour of tow time with $195 for each additional half-hour.
On the HOA side, the $100-per-violation cap limits the sting of any single penalty, but it resets with each new occurrence. If the board treats every day the RV remains visible as a separate violation, you’re still looking at $100 per day until it’s moved or screened. And if the board characterizes the violation as a health or safety issue, the cap doesn’t apply.
Parking an RV in your California driveway is legal in many situations, but the rules are intensely local. Check your city’s municipal code for duration, screening, and surface rules. If you’re in an HOA, read the CC&Rs and any supplemental parking regulations. If your property sits in the Coastal Zone, verify with the Coastal Commission before you assume the driveway is fair game.