Fountain Valley, CA Code Violation Reporting: Common Violations (2026)

Section 8.04.020 of the Fountain Valley Municipal Code lists twenty-four conditions declared to be public nuisances, and § 8.04.030 makes it unlawful for any owner, lessee, occupant or person in charge of property in the city to maintain property so that any of them exists. The conditions behind most yard and street-view complaints include: lumber, junk, trash, salvage materials, rubble, broken asphalt, containers or scrap metal visible from a public street, alley or adjoining property (item 7); furniture, stoves, sinks, toilets, cabinets and household appliances stored where they are visible at ground level (item 9); construction equipment, supplies or machinery parked or stored in any zone other than the M-1 manufacturing district, unless an active building permit covers work on that property or an adjoining one (item 10); clotheslines in front yards and in side yards of corner lots (item 17); boats and other watercraft stored in a required front or side yard other than on a validly licensed trailer (item 22); vegetation overgrowth that reaches into a public right-of-way (item 21); and any property with repeated municipal code violations or a pattern of activity that would violate the code (item 24).

The owner carries primary responsibility under § 8.04.150, and tenants and occupants are treated as the owner's agents. Section 8.04.030 says the hearing procedures are not the exclusive way to abate these conditions, and § 8.04.140 preserves civil and criminal proceedings. The planning/building director and the code enforcement officer have power to arrest for misdemeanor violations of the chapter committed in their presence under § 8.04.180. Chapter 8.04 itself describes no complaint form or hotline.