Ojai Grass Height Limits Rules (2026): What You Need to Know

Ojai Municipal Code Title 4, Chapter 9 establishes a nuisance abatement framework that encompasses overgrown grass and unmaintained lawns. Grass and vegetation that has grown to a height or density that creates a fire hazard — particularly when dry — harbors rodents or insects, obstructs public sightlines, or degrades the visual character of the surrounding neighborhood is subject to mandatory abatement. The city's Code Enforcement Division responds to complaints and conducts periodic inspections, issuing a Notice to Abate that typically provides 10 to 30 days for the property owner to correct the condition. If the owner fails to comply, the city may contract a private landscaping crew to perform the abatement and assess all costs, including administrative overhead, against the property.

Ojai does not publish a single numeric maximum grass height in its code. Instead, enforcement relies on a reasonable-person nuisance standard: grass and vegetation that is conspicuously taller and more overgrown than surrounding maintained properties, that has dried to a combustible state, or that has gone to seed and is visibly unkempt will typically trigger a citation. Property owners are also responsible for maintaining the parkway strip — the public right-of-way between the sidewalk and the street curb — adjacent to their lot, including regular mowing, irrigation, and removal of dead material.

The fire-risk dimension of grass maintenance is especially critical in Ojai. The city sits in a narrow east-west valley at roughly 750 feet elevation, surrounded on three sides by the Topatopa Mountains and the Los Padres National Forest. The December 2017 Thomas Fire — at the time the largest wildfire in modern California history — swept through the Ojai Valley, destroying over 1,000 structures countywide and forcing the complete evacuation of the city. Since that event, both residents and local government have placed heightened emphasis on vegetation management as a component of community wildfire resilience. CAL FIRE has designated the entire Ojai area as a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, requiring all structures to maintain a minimum 100-foot defensible space perimeter under California Public Resources Code Section 4291.