Costa Mesa, CA Code Violation Reporting: Common Violations (2026)

Section 20-12 opens: conditions which qualify as a public nuisance include, but are not limited to, the following, then itemizes them (a) through (ii). The most frequently cited residential items include (e), keeping, storing, or maintaining on or in front of any real property any litter, rubbish or weeds when open to view at street level; (f)(1), dead or overgrown vegetation likely to harbor rats, vermin including but not limited to bed bugs, roaches, lice, fleas, and ticks; and (k), keeping any vehicle or recreational vehicle except as permitted by Table 20-8(c).

Housing-use violations are itemized separately: (m) bars using any parked vehicle or RV, operative or not, as temporary or permanent living space except in a designated recreational vehicle/mobile home park, and (n) bars using a garage as a temporary or permanent living space or as a meeting room. Subsection (o) bars keeping construction equipment, buses, tow trucks, dump trucks or any commercial vehicle over 25 feet long in a residential zone. Subsections (p) and (q) bar storing household items or building fencing on rooftops without a building permit. Subsection (r)(1) lists infestation of insects, including but not limited to bed bugs, roaches, lice, fleas, and ticks, rodents, or vermin under inadequate sanitation, and subsection (l) makes an unpermitted canopy under Section 20-9 a nuisance in its own right. Subsection (bb) separately reaches a vacant parcel not kept free from trash, litter, and other debris.