El Cajon, CA Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

El Cajon Municipal Code Sec. " The word "maximum" makes clear this is a hard cap, not a guideline, and it resets on a calendar-year basis rather than a rolling 12-month window. Duration is equally strict: "No single garage sale event shall exceed one calendar day," so a homeowner cannot stretch one sale across a weekend and count it as a single event. The code explicitly extends this limitation to multi-family residential developments as well as single-family homes, closing a loophole where an apartment or condo complex might otherwise host far more frequent sales spread across individual units.

Because the six-per-year cap applies to the property as a whole in a multi-family context, not per unit, the ordinance directs residents in multi-family developments to coordinate their garage sales, effectively requiring neighbors to share the property's limited annual allotment rather than each resident claiming six sales individually. Sec. 225, Miscellaneous Special Uses and Regulations, alongside other special-use standards like bed and breakfast establishments and home occupations, reflecting that garage sales are treated as a limited accessory use of residential property rather than a commercial retail activity requiring a business license or zoning permit. The ordinance dates to Ord. 4950 Section 3, adopted in 2010, and has not been separately amended since.