Novato, CA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Chapter XIV, section 14-20 of the Novato Municipal Code is the city's unlawful camping ordinance. Section 14-20.1 states its purpose: keeping streets, parks and public areas accessible, clean and sanitary, and avoiding the public cost of cleaning up, repairing or remediating property to prevent uncontrolled fires, eradicate garbage and waste, preserve areas around streams and creeks, and protect the routing of stormwater.

Section 14-20.2 defines the terms broadly. To camp means to place, pitch or occupy camp facilities, to live temporarily in a camp facility or outdoors, or to use camp paraphernalia. Camp facilities include tents, huts, vehicles, vehicle camping outfits and temporary shelter. Camp paraphernalia includes bedrolls, tarpaulins, cots, beds, sleeping bags, hammocks and cooking facilities. Public property means all public property, including streets, sidewalks, alleys, parks, and improved or unimproved land.

Section 14-20.3 makes it unlawful and a public nuisance to camp, occupy camp facilities or use camp paraphernalia in, on, under or at any public property, except as expressly permitted in connection with a park permit issued under chapter 10. Section 14-20.4 applies the same rule to storing personal property, including camp paraphernalia, on public property. Section 14-20.5, added by Ordinance No. 1669 on 6-8-2021, bars any fire on public property unless it is in an apparatus or receptacle provided, owned or maintained by the City of Novato, and bars leaving a fire unattended by an adult or leaving a location before the fire is completely extinguished and cold to the touch.

Section 14-20.1 adds that nothing in the chapter is intended to interfere with otherwise lawful and ordinary uses of public property. Section 14-20 as printed sets no posting period before removal and no property-retrieval procedure.