Ventura, CA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

200 "Lying and Sitting on Sidewalks and Other Public Ways and Places," prohibits sitting or lying down, or placing a blanket, chair, stool or other object to sit or lie on, upon a public sidewalk, sidewalk curb, biking-walking path, or a building doorway or entrance, but only within three defined geographic zones. The first is downtown Ventura, bounded by the Ventura River on the west, the Pacific Ocean on the south, Poli Street on the north, and a boundary running Crimea Street to Meta, Hemlock from Meta to Thompson Boulevard, and San Jon Road on the east.

The second is the Ventura Avenue area, running along Ventura Avenue from Main Street north to Stanley Avenue. The third covers specific zoning districts citywide: C-T-O commercial tourist-oriented zones, TO tourist-oriented overlay zones, C-2 commercial zones, P park zones, and H-C harbor commercial zones. Subsection B builds in a warning requirement: no one can be cited unless a law enforcement officer first notified them that the specific conduct violated the section, so a first-time sitter or sleeper who has not previously been warned cannot be ticketed.

040 carves out broad exceptions covering parade and permitted-event spectators, people using authorized benches, permit holders, private property with the owner's consent, medical emergencies, wheelchair users, outdoor dining permit areas, and constitutionally protected picketing, protesting, or leafleting activity connected to a labor dispute, so the ordinance is a zone-specific rule aimed at sidewalk obstruction in the busiest commercial corridors rather than a general citywide ban.