Pomona, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Sec. 18-222(33) treats vehicle and boat repair or dismantling on residential property as a nuisance whenever it is visible from the public right-of-way, unless the work and every trace of it, tools, equipment, motor oil, other fluids, rags, spills, parts, and debris, is finished and removed within one day of starting. Any major repair must happen inside an enclosed garage regardless of visibility. The code narrows who can do the work at all: no repair or dismantling of a vehicle or boat on residentially zoned or residentially used property is allowed unless the vehicle or boat is owned or leased by, and registered to, a person who permanently resides at that address, which forecloses running an informal repair business out of a home driveway.

The code separately defines a minor repair as one started and completed in under six consecutive hours; anything longer, plus any body and fender work or painting or primer work, counts as a major repair requiring the enclosed garage. On non-residentially zoned property, no outdoor vehicle repair or dismantling is allowed at all except in full conformance with the Zoning and Development Code and the rest of the City Code. Because this rule sits inside Sec. 18-222's public nuisance list, a violation follows the same Chapter 18 process: a code compliance officer can serve a written notice of abatement under Sec. 18-225 with a compliance deadline, and the responsible person has ten calendar days from service to appeal to the city clerk without a fee.