Pismo Beach, CA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Chapter 12.28 of the Pismo Beach Municipal Code is short: a definitions section, the prohibition and a violation clause. Section 12.28.020 makes it unlawful for any person to camp overnight, or to occupy any recreational vehicle overnight, in four kinds of places: any public park or beach not designated for camping; any public street; any public parking lot or public area, improved or unimproved; and any vacant parcel of property located within the city. The one exception is a permit issued by the city manager or his/her designee. The prohibition is worded as applying to any person.

Section 12.28.010 supplies the terms that decide what counts. "Camp" means the use of camping facilities such as tents, tarpaulins or temporary shelters, the use of nonpublic cooking facilities and similar equipment, or the use of cots, beds, sleeping bags or hammocks. "Overnight" includes the hours between one-half hour after sunset and sunrise the following day, so the rule follows the sun rather than a fixed clock time. "Recreational vehicle" includes a motor home, slide-in camper, travel trailer, truck camper or camping trailer, with or without motor power, designed for human habitation.

Enforcement runs through the city's general penalty chapter. Section 12.28.030 makes a violation an infraction, and Municipal Code § 1.20.010 sets the infraction fines and makes each day of a violation a separate offense. Chapter 12.28 itself prints no cleanup, storage or sanitation procedure, so this page covers only the camping prohibition and its penalty.

Related public-place rules sit in other chapters. Chapter 12.20 separately closes the pier zone between eleven p.m. and four a.m., and § 12.22.080 bars sidewalk vending on the beach and in parking lots. Each of those is a different rule with its own section, and none replaces the camping ban.