San Diego County, CA Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Weeds and combustible vegetation in unincorporated San Diego County are regulated primarily as a fire hazard. The County's Combustible Vegetation and Other Flammable Materials Ordinance, codified at County Code sections 68.401 through 68.406, finds that the accumulation of combustible vegetation, dead, dying or diseased trees, green waste, rubbish, and other flammable materials on private property creates a fire hazard injurious to public health, safety, and welfare, and declares such conditions a public nuisance subject to abatement. When such materials are allowed to grow or accumulate on a parcel, or on adjacent sidewalks, parking areas, or streets, so as to endanger improvements or neighboring property, the Fire Warden may declare a public nuisance and proceed under the County's Public Nuisance Abatement Procedure. These provisions apply in unincorporated areas not within an organized fire protection district; within a district, the district's own weed-abatement program and annual notices govern. The abatement program ties into defensible-space requirements that call for clearing dead and dying grasses, weeds, brush, and combustible vegetation within 100 feet of structures. The process generally includes notice to the owner, an opportunity to abate, and, if the owner fails to act, County abatement with costs recovered. This is in addition to California's Public Resources Code section 4291 statewide defensible-space mandate.