Portland, ME parking ban: the fine, tow fees and refund rule

Published 24 September 2026

If Portland declares a parking ban and your car is still on a ban street after 10 p.m., it can be ticketed and towed at your expense. The City's parking-ban alerts put the fine at $130, and the tow and storage come on top, capped by City Code Sec. 28-122.

We provide towing in Portland, Maine, but we are not the City's tow contractor and we do not impound cars. Here is how a ban works, what a ban tow costs, how to get the car back, and when to call a tow truck of your own.

The City Manager or a designee declares it at least six hours before it starts (City Code Sec. 28-97), for every street or only certain streets or areas. The City's parking-ban alerts say a ban, when called, runs from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and Sec. 28-98 makes it unlawful to leave a car parked on an affected street during the ban, unaccepted streets included.

The City says its alerts, by email or text, are the fastest way to hear about a ban. Sign up at portlandmaine.gov/stayconnected, or text PortlandParkingBan to 38276. The ban alerts also list a Parking Ban Hotline, 207-879-0300, and Public Works Customer Service, 207-874-8493.

Off the street, in a ban lot or a City garage. The City's winter parking alert counts 28 locations where cars may park during a ban, plus several garages with reduced snow-ban rates. At the City-owned Elm Street and Spring Street garages, its alerts give a snow-ban rate of $3 if you enter after 5 p.m. and leave by 8 a.m., and some alerts open that rate earlier.

Ban lots have a morning deadline: 7:00 a.m. in one alert, with 6:30 a.m. for school lots, and the City says it may tow, at the owner's expense, any car not moved by the deadline. That alert named these free lots, and the list can change from storm to storm:

• Dougherty Field Skate Park lot
• Deering Oaks, Tennis Court Road only
• Fitzpatrick Stadium and Hadlock Field
• All Portland Public School lots
• The City lot at Park and Commercial Streets, and the Ocean Gateway lot

The fine is $130, according to the City's parking-ban alerts, and it is separate from the tow. Under City Code Sec. 28-101(a), police can remove a car parked during an emergency parking ban, and the car is held until the tow and storage fees are paid.

Two rules give the tow and storage charges back. Under Sec. 28-105(b), the City refunds them if the car was towed less than six hours after the ban was declared, matching the six hours of notice in Sec. 28-97. Under Sec. 28-105(a), the owner is repaid if a court later finds the car was not illegally parked. Keep every receipt.

If you move the car before the wrecker hooks it up, Sec. 28-122 says no towing fee can be charged. Once it is hooked (physically connected, lifted or not) and until the wrecker starts to leave, you can have it released by paying the driver $40 in cash. That rule covers the towing fee, not a ticket already written.

Up to $150 for the tow, plus storage and release fees. Chapter 28 of the City Code sets these as maximums, not fixed prices, for every tow in Portland done without the owner's consent, snow tows included, in text dated June 1, 2026 (Ord. No. 225-25/26). The police chief or a designee may approve more in unusual circumstances, and operators must post their rates at the release facility (Sec. 28-123(n)).

When you collect the car matters: storage cannot start until 24 hours after the tow, and the after-hours fee does not apply from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, outside official City holidays. For a tow you call for yourself, what a tow costs in Portland explains how we quote one. The ban-tow lines:

• Tow: up to $150 for a non-accident tow.
• Storage: up to $50 per day or part of a day, starting 24 hours after the tow.
• After-hours release: up to $40 from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. on any day, and all day on Sundays and official City holidays.
• Shovel-out: if the car had to be shoveled out, release at the scene costs $25 before it is hooked or $40 once hooked, when a City employee finds the shoveling reasonable and necessary.

To a private tow lot. The City's winter alert says towed cars now go to private tow truck lots because the City no longer has its own impound lot, and Sec. 28-123(a) requires tow operators to keep their storage and release lots in Portland or within 7 miles of City Hall. The officer who orders a tow must tell the police dispatcher where the car is being stored, and the dispatcher records it (Sec. 28-102(a)).

To collect the car, show satisfactory proof of your right to it and sign a receipt (Sec. 28-103). A car towed at police request is not released until unpaid parking fines and City charges are settled (Sec. 28-127), and the operator must release it within one hour of your request (Sec. 28-123(o)). In urgent cases, the police chief may let the owner get keys or medication out first, on a written request (Sec. 28-129).

Call a tow truck of your own when the problem is the car rather than the ban. If it will not start and a ban has been declared, call early in the evening and we can tow it off the street to a driveway or a repair shop. If the plow has packed it in at the curb, a winch-out can pull it clear.