5 county-level rules, plus city-specific rules for 1 city in Santa Cruz County, California.
Verified from official government sources
Unincorporated Santa Cruz County requires waste containers to be set out no more than 24 hours before pickup and removed within 24 hours after collection, per the County Solid Waste ordinance (Ch. 7.20). GreenWaste asks that carts be at the curb by 5 AM on collection day.
In unincorporated Santa Cruz County, conditions that violate County Code, including accumulated junk, debris, and blighting conditions, are public nuisances under Chapter 1.14. Code Compliance is complaint-driven; an enforcing officer can order abatement within 10 days, and abatement costs are recovered on the property tax bill.
Unincorporated Santa Cruz County has no separate numeric 'vacant-lot' ordinance; vacant and unimproved parcels are kept up through the County's nuisance-abatement code (Ch. 1.14) and, in the State Responsibility Area, California defensible-space law (PRC 4291), which requires hazardous vegetation clearance around improved buildings.
In unincorporated Santa Cruz County, garage and yard sales are allowed as a temporary residential use under the zoning code (Ch. 13.10) without a special permit, provided they don't exceed four weekends per year at a site with a legal residential use.
Most of unincorporated Santa Cruz County is in California's State Responsibility Area, where state law (PRC 4291) requires 100 feet of defensible space around buildings, including cutting annual grass to 4 inches. Overgrown weeds can also be abated as a nuisance under County Code Chapter 1.14.
1 cities in Santa Cruz County have their own property maintenance rules. Each link goes to that city's dedicated page with code citations.
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Santa Cruz County Ordinance Hub →