Will Miami Beach limit towing of residents’ cars? City commissioner has a plan
If you live in Miami Beach and park in a residential zone without the proper permit, your car may be towed. If you park in front of a yellow curb, or in a spot designated for motorcycles, you may meet a similar fate.
But that could soon change. A resolution passed at Wednesday’s City Commission meeting calls for the city to eliminate towing for city residents parked on public property in most cases, except for safety reasons.
The item’s sponsor, Commissioner Alex Fernandez, directed the city administration to draw up a detailed plan, with the support of five fellow commissioners who were listed as co-sponsors.
The idea, Fernandez told the Miami Herald, is to end the type of resident towing that’s done for the sole purpose of “compliance.”
Parking illegally in a residential zone, for example, would land you with a ticket, but not a tow. Blocking a fire hydrant or parking in a loading zone, on the other hand, could still be a tow-worthy offense.
Out of nearly 1,000 tows of city residents on public property so far this year, about 64% were for non-safety violations, Fernandez said.
“Towing should be a mechanism to serve the public, not to hurt the people,” he said. “This is the number one complaint that we get from our residents, and we can solve it very easily by ending this inconvenience that not only affects residents’ quality of life but is a big financial burden.”
Getting your car back after it’s towed in Miami Beach can cost around $500, according to information posted by the city. There’s a $274 towing rate for most vehicles, a $150 administrative fee, a $33 fee that goes to the city and a $45 charge for outside storage beyond six hours.
Miami Beach residents can pay a discounted towing rate of $150 and have the administrative fee waived if they show a driver’s license and registration at a valid city address.
Residents have made up about 17% of all tows in Miami Beach so far in 2026, Fernandez said.
His proposal would supplement a program he championed last year to have the city send residents a text message after they get a citation but before their car is towed, giving them time to get back to the car before it’s hauled away.
From May 2025 through March 2026, nearly 2,800 such alerts have been sent to residents, Fernandez said, and just over 400 vehicles have ended up being towed, or about 15%.
In order to receive the text alerts, Miami Beach residents need to register in the city’s parking system, which also grants them a $1 per hour metered parking rate citywide. The changes Fernandez is now proposing would likely work the same way, he said, requiring registration in order to be exempt from towing in most cases.
Fernandez said the broad support for his proposal among his commission colleagues runs counter to public narratives about tow companies wielding undue influence in Miami Beach.
“To me, their position on this is irrelevant,” Fernandez said when asked where the companies stand. “I’m elected by the residents. At the end of the day, public parking spaces belong to the residents and the taxpayers of Miami Beach, and we need to make these as accessible to our residents as possible.”
Ralph Andrade, a representative for the two towing companies that operate in Miami Beach — Tremont Towing and Beach Towing — did not respond to a request for comment about Fernandez’s proposal.
Fernandez’s resolution asked the city administration to present a plan to the commission’s Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life subcommittee in May. The plan will need to return to the full commission for approval.
Fernandez said the plan the city administration develops could include time limits for residents to move their cars, even if they are initially spared from being towed.
Miami Beach United, a resident advocacy group, said it supported the resolution as “another step in eliminating predatory towing practices” but suggested that “no-tow exceptions be limited to violations that do not extend past 24 hours.”
In addition to seeking a decrease in resident towing, Fernandez’s resolution called for beefing up enforcement via citations in resident zones and freight loading zones “to ensure compliance and reduce illegal parking.”
This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 5:07 PM.
