West Virginia Free Metered Parking for Disabled Veterans and Purple Heart Recipients

West Virginia Code 17A-3-15a is one sentence long and unusually broad. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, any person who is a disabled veteran from the United States Armed Forces, or who was awarded the Purple Heart, may park at any metered parking space in any municipality in this state without being required to deposit any sum of coins or currency into the meter. Three words do most of the work. "Any" metered parking space, in "any" municipality, with no deposit. A municipality cannot opt out, cannot cap the hours, and cannot charge a reduced rate instead, because the section opens by overriding contrary law. The proviso is where people lose the benefit. An appropriate designation must appear on the person's registration plate demonstrating that the person is a disabled veteran or was awarded the Purple Heart. The plate is the credential. A VA identification card, a rating letter, or a veteran designation on a driver's license does not satisfy this section, and neither does the ordinary veteran plate under 17A-3-14b, which carries no such designation. So the practical order is: get the disabled veteran or Purple Heart plate under West Virginia Code 17A-3-14d, which is itself exempt from all registration fees, and the parking follows. Those plates have their own entry here. Two limits to be honest about. This exempts you from feeding the meter. It does not exempt you from the rest of parking law. A time limit posted on the space, a street cleaning restriction, a fire hydrant, a loading zone, or a tow-away hour are all still enforceable against you, and nothing in this section says otherwise. It reaches metered spaces in municipalities. Privately operated lots and garages, university and hospital parking, and paid spaces that are not municipal meters are outside it. This is also separate from accessible parking. A disabled veteran plate is not a mobility-impaired placard, and the right to use an accessible space rests on the separate mobility-impaired credential issued on a physician's certification, not on this section.