Lake County, CA Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Lake County's Hazardous Vegetation/Combustible Material Abatement Ordinance (County Code Sections 13-57 through 13-67) declares that all hazardous vegetation and combustible material in the unincorporated area is a public nuisance and applies to every parcel, improved or not. 2 requires maintaining a thirty-foot defensible space around all buildings and structures, ten feet of clearance next to any frontage road, removal of tree limbs within ten feet of a chimney or stovepipe outlet, a roof kept free of leaves, needles, or dead or dying wood, and year-round maintenance of shrubbery and trees.

Where the state Public Resources Code Section 4291 defensible-space standard applies, that state standard controls instead. The County Fire Official may order additional defensible space out to one hundred feet from a structure based on slope, fuel load, and fuel type, and may authorize alternatives to disking or mowing where terrain makes that impractical. Enforcement starts with a written notice of violation ordering abatement within thirty business days, extendable if the Fire Official finds the parcel's size or topography justifies more time. A property owner who disagrees may request a Board of Supervisors hearing within fifteen calendar days of the notice's postmark, which stays abatement until the hearing is held.

If no timely appeal is filed, the Board deems the abatement ordered as of the postmark date, and the County may abate the hazard itself and bill the owner for administrative, labor, and material costs.