Madera, CA

Madera does not run a nightly parking curfew, but Municipal Code Section 3-5.18 makes it unlawful to park, leave standing, or store any vehicle on a city street or alley for more than…

Madera bans using a trailer, camper or RV for living or sleeping quarters anywhere in the city outside a licensed mobile home or travel trailer park, and caps street parking of any RV…

Madera requires at least one off-street loading space for any building of 5,000 square feet or more built on or after August 4, 1978, plus one more for every additional 20,000 square…

Madera Municipal Code § 4-8.01(B) declares any abandoned, wrecked, dismantled, or inoperative vehicle on private or public property, including highways, a public nuisance. Section…

Madera Municipal Code § 10-3.413 prohibits storing or parking commercial vehicles in the city's R-1, R-2, and R-3 residential zones, along with storing commercial materials, supplies…

Madera bans parking trailers, boats, motorcycles or motor vehicles on any unpaved part of a front yard or corner-lot side yard at a home. Vehicles must sit on asphalt, concrete, gravel…

Madera County's traffic engineer designates specific no-parking zones under Vehicle Code § 21458 and marks them by painting the curb red, posting signs, or both. Chapter 10.36 lists…

Unincorporated Madera County runs electric vehicle charging stations that qualify under state law through an expedited, administrative permit process rather than the standard…

California doesn't ban private-property towing, but Vehicle Code Section 22658 controls how it happens. A posted sign at least 17 by 22 inches must warn drivers before a tow company…

Madera Municipal Code Section 5-1.28 bars dogs from running loose on any public street, park or unenclosed private property unless held on a leash or cord, staked, or restrained in a…

Madera Municipal Code Section 5-1.32 allows exotic pets like snakes, turtles, monkeys and chinchillas but requires escape-proof housing, and makes the owner pay Animal Control's…

Madera Municipal Code Section 5-1.32 requires anyone operating a wildlife rescue program in the city to file their state and federal permits with the Abatement and Compliance Division…

Madera Municipal Code Section 5-1.31 caps livestock, a list that explicitly includes chickens, ducks and rabbits along with horses, pigs, cows, sheep and goats, at three animals per…

Madera doesn't ban breeds by name. Section 5-1.23 lets the Police Department declare any dog vicious or potentially dangerous based on its bite and attack history, then hold an…

Keep four or fewer dogs, cats or other small domesticated animals at an unincorporated Madera County home and no kennel license is required: five or more triggers 'kennel' status and…

Unincorporated Madera County sets no permit or zoning limit on beekeeping, but anyone who keeps an apiary somewhere other than their own residence must post an identifying sign with…

Cat licensing is optional in unincorporated Madera County, unlike the mandatory license and vaccination scheme that applies to dogs.

In the Sierra National Forest portion of unincorporated Madera County, property owners, residents and businesses must keep garbage and other bear attractants secured in bear-proof…

Unincorporated Madera County lets licensed pet shops sell dogs but requires monthly reporting of every unlicensed dog sale to animal services.

Madera defines weeds as any grass or plant growth exceeding six inches that isn't cultivated for food or ornamental use, and declares all weeds, dirt, rubbish and brush on private…

Madera Municipal Code § 4-6.04 lets the Director of Code Enforcement order a property owner to trim or remove any tree or shrub, whether on private land or the parking strip out front…

Madera Municipal Code § 4-6.02 puts the removal duty on the abutting property owner: any street tree that is dying, dead, decayed, diseased, hazardous, or damaging a sidewalk or curb…

When Madera declares a drought restriction level, outdoor irrigation is confined to the hours of midnight to 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. to midnight, with Levels B through F also limiting…

Madera County's code has no standalone artificial-turf ordinance; its only mention defines residential artificial turf and sod as qualifying 'landscape' material inside the…

Madera County's landscape ordinance does not force common areas or open space meant to stay natural to be landscaped, and it bars HOA covenants from prohibiting low-water or native…

SB 1383 requires every California resident and business to separate food scraps and yard waste from trash, with universal collection or on-site composting.

The 2012 Rainwater Capture Act allows California residents to capture rainwater from rooftops for non-potable outdoor use without a state water-right permit, preempting most local…

Madera requires vacant parcels larger than five acres to maintain a firebreak at least 30 feet wide around the property's perimeter and a separate 100-foot combustible-material…

Madera requires every living unit in a building being converted from rental apartments to condominiums to have an approved smoke detector before the city will approve the conversion…

Madera allows only fireworks classified safe and sane by the State Fire Marshal, sold solely through a city permit issued to qualifying nonprofit organizations during a fixed…

Short-term rentals in unincorporated Madera County cannot have open wood-burning fire pits, bonfires, or campfires; only rental-provided propane or gas pits with small tanks, set ten…

Parcels in Madera County's state responsibility area, the foothill and mountain land north and east of the Madera Canal, must meet state fire-safe building setbacks and maintain…

Burning any material on the exposed lake bed at Bass Lake below the high water mark is illegal in unincorporated Madera County, a rule enforced with mandatory warning signage posted at…

California uniformly applies the State Fire Marshal's propane storage standards through the California Fire Code, which all local jurisdictions must enforce as a minimum.

Detached sheds and accessory buildings in Madera's R-1, R-2, R-3, and PD zones must sit 10 feet from any dwelling if larger than 1,000 square feet or taller than 12 feet, under…

Madera bars accessory dwelling units and junior ADUs from being rented for terms under 30 days. Section 10-3.513 also forbids selling an ADU separately from the main house, keeping the…

Madera implements the state ADU mandate at Municipal Code § 10-3.513: ADUs are approved ministerially, capped at 1,200 square feet detached, limited to one story at 16 feet (two…

Madera requires a separate utility connection fee or capacity charge for most new ADUs under § 10-3.513(E)(3), but waives it for ADUs built entirely inside existing living space…

Madera requires a recorded deed restriction before an ADU can be occupied, but the unit is legal only if the owner of record lives in either the main house or the ADU, unless the owner…

California ADU law, Government Code 66310 et seq. (formerly 65852.2), expressly authorizes converting an existing garage into an ADU, with no replacement parking allowed and…

A home business in Madera may display only a small nameplate, capped at two square feet, listing the premises name, owner or lessee, and address, mounted flush to the building and…

Operating a large family day care home in a Madera single-family zone requires a use permit under Municipal Code § 10-3.1312, with standards covering operator residency, parking…

Home occupations are permitted in all Madera R zones under Municipal Code § 10-3.405(H), but the Planning Commission decides what activities qualify by resolution, and every home…

A permitted Madera County cottage industry may host one customer at a time, by appointment only, weekdays 8 a.m.-5 p.m., with on-site parking required.

Government Code section 51035 forbids any California city, county, or city and county from prohibiting a cottage food operation in a residential dwelling. The local agency must pick…

California lets home cooks sell meals from their own kitchen under a microenterprise home kitchen operation (MEHKO) permit, capped at 30 meals a day, 90 a week, and $100,000 in annual…

Madera's Industrial Park (IP) zoning caps machinery and plant noise using an octave-band decibel table. At the IP zone boundary, sound pressure cannot exceed 72 decibels in the lowest…

Madera bars noisy construction, drilling, remodeling, paving, grading or demolition work between 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. under § 3-11.02(B), and gives power tools and lawn or garden…

City of Madera Code §3-11.01 prohibits any unnecessary noise that is physically annoying to a person of ordinary sensitivity, or which is harsh, prolonged, unnatural or unusual in its…

Madera bars anyone from starting or driving a motor vehicle, motorcycle, minibike, dune buggy, jeep or similar powered vehicle on public or private property unless it carries a…

Madera's noise ordinance singles out radios, stereos, loudspeakers, drums and musical instruments that violate the general unlawful-noise standard, and separately targets house parties…

Madera Municipal Code Section 5-1.25 makes it unlawful to let a pet habitually destroy the peace and quiet of a person or neighborhood with excessive noise, giving Animal Control a…

California sets statewide airport noise limits under Title 21 CCR, with the state preempting most local aviation noise control because federal FAA authority dominates aircraft…

Madera bans barbed wire on residential fences in the R-1, R-2, R-3, and PD zones and limits construction to permanent materials like wood, chain link, and masonry under Municipal Code…

Madera Code §10-3.506 caps fence height at 3 feet in any front or street-side yard setback and 6 feet in rear/interior side yards (exclusive of front setback). Exterior side yards…

Adjacent Madera County landowners who both use their land for raising livestock must split the cost of building and maintaining their boundary fence equally, and county code sets a…

Before renting to guests, short-term rental operators in unincorporated Madera County must register the lodging with the county tax administrator and post a registration certificate on…

Short-term rental hosts in unincorporated Madera County owe a 9% transient occupancy tax on rent charged to guests staying 30 days or less, collected at time of payment and remitted…

California requires hosting platforms to warn hosts to check their lease and insurance before listing (Business and Professions Code 22592), and AB 537 requires short-term lodging…

Building a residential swimming pool in unincorporated Madera County requires a county building permit. Title 14 names swimming pools alongside buildings and structures, and adopts the…

California Health and Safety Code sections 115920-115929 (Swimming Pool Safety Act) impose statewide minimum fencing and drowning-prevention standards for new and remodeled residential…

Madera requires every licensed cannabis business to sit at least 600 feet from schools, licensed daycare centers, youth centers and other state-designated sensitive uses, measured…

Madera allows permitted cannabis businesses but keeps them at least 600 feet from schools, licensed daycares and youth centers, and caps the total number of permits the City Council…

Health and Safety Code section 11362.2 grants every adult 21 or older the statewide right to cultivate up to six cannabis plants indoors, and bars local governments from completely…

Madera charges a re-inspection fee under § 9-1.01(D) whenever work is not ready when an inspector arrives or corrections were not made, and requires a written re-inspection application…

Madera adopts the 2022 California Plumbing Code by reference to regulate plumbing systems citywide, excluding Table 104.5, and applies whichever code provision gives the highest level…

Madera adopts the 2022 California Building Code by reference and requires a permit for erection, construction, enlargement, alteration, repair, moving, demolition and change of…

Madera adopts the 2022 California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen) by reference for all residential and non-residential buildings, applying the most protective code where a…

Madera adopts the 2022 California Electrical Code, incorporating the 2020 National Electrical Code, to govern electrical systems citywide, applying the most restrictive rule when it…

Madera bans any advertising structure or sign on property next to a landscaped freeway if it is designed to be viewed primarily by freeway travelers, with narrow exceptions for on-site…

Madera treats a changeable-copy sign, its permanent-face sign with swappable lettering, as a conditional use: it needs Planning Commission approval, is limited to one per business and…

Madera lets a business display temporary, non-illuminated window signs for up to 30 days, but caps coverage at 60% of any single window and 30% of all the store's window area combined.

Madera exempts political signs from a sign permit but caps each at 32 square feet per candidate or issue per site, bars posting before candidacy filing closes, and requires removal…

Madera caps garage sale signs at six square feet, posted on the sale premises, under Municipal Code § 10-3.405(K)(6). Off-premises signs need the owner's written permission…

Madera exempts holiday greetings and seasonal decorations from sign permits, but they must come down within 14 days after the holiday, and an advertising sign disguised as a decoration…

Madera bans throwing or depositing refuse on anyone else's property, streets, alleys, or public places outside authorized collection under Municipal Code Section 5-3.06. A violation of…

Madera provides a special disposal service under Municipal Code Section 5-3.12 for refuse too large or too much for a standard container, or for pickup outside the regular route…

Madera Municipal Code Section 5-3.24 requires containers to come off the curb and be stored on the property between the front yard setback line and the rear yard fence, and that has to…

Madera Municipal Code Section 5-3.08 puts the City Administrator in charge of setting collection days and container locations, with a floor of once-a-week service for every account…

Construction and demolition projects in Madera that generate eight cubic yards or more of debris must use C&D recycling bins or roll-off boxes to source-separate the material, under…

Every occupied property in Madera must carry city refuse and recycling collection under Municipal Code Section 5-3.02, with rates set by City Council resolution. Section 5-3.16 puts…

Madera lets residents segregate recyclables from garbage and sell or give them to a private collector under Municipal Code Section 5-3.15, but once recyclables are set out at curbside…

Madera requires collection containers to sit at the curb on the travelway side, at the travelway edge if there is no curb, or in an authorized rear alley on collection day under…

Madera requires every single-family and commercial generator to subscribe to a three-container system and sort food and yard waste into the green container under Municipal Code Chapter…

Every solid waste customer in Madera must sort green and yard waste from garbage before collection, under Madera Municipal Code § 5-3.25. The city runs separate green-waste and garbage…

Madera requires a City Engineer permit before anyone places or keeps any object or obstruction on a public sidewalk, street, avenue, or alley. Municipal Code Section 3-4.01 makes…

Madera requires a written permit from the Chief of Police before anyone conducts, manages, or joins a parade or assembly on a public street, sidewalk, or alley. Municipal Code Section…

Once a group obtains a permit reserving part of a Madera city park, Municipal Code Section 4-4.06 makes it unlawful for anyone else to interfere with that reservation or refuse to…

Closing a county road for a neighborhood gathering in unincorporated Madera County requires written road commissioner approval, on top of any outdoor-event permit or registration.

Street fairs, flea markets, and festivals in unincorporated Madera County need an outdoor event permit once they're expected to draw 300 or more people at a time.

Madera bars pedestrians from crossing a roadway anywhere but a marked crosswalk inside the Central Traffic District or any business district. Municipal Code Section 3-5.13 carves out a…

Madera bans skateboards, in-line skates, roller skates and scooters on any street with a parallel sidewalk, confines skate-park riding to Rotary Park, closes a stretch of Gateway…

Madera bars drinking intoxicating liquor on streets, sidewalks, alleys, vacant lots and other public places, and separately bans possessing an open container of alcohol in any city…

Madera bans smoking, defined to include cannabis and vaping devices, in unenclosed public places such as outdoor dining areas and recreational areas like parks and playgrounds, under…

Unincorporated Madera County treats any noise-chapter violation as a public nuisance and holds the property owner or event host liable, with each day and each verification visit a…

In unincorporated Madera County, it's a misdemeanor to loiter in a business's off-street parking lot after the owner, manager, or a peace officer tells you to leave, but only where the…

Smoking, ingesting, or otherwise consuming marijuana anywhere outside a private residence is illegal across unincorporated Madera County: the ban covers recreational and medical use…

Madera sorts every business into a tax class before it can open: retail pays the full gross-receipts schedule, wholesale and manufacturing pay half that schedule, and combined…

Filming a commercial motion picture, TV show, ad, or still photography anywhere in Madera, public or private property, requires a City Manager permit and a $100 application fee before…

When a Madera film shoot affects traffic or needs street parking cleared, the permittee must give two to four working days' notice, have the Public Works Department post no-parking…

Film shoots in unincorporated Madera County can be conditioned by the permit clerk to restrict firearms, explosions, and other noise-creating devices that disturb the peace.

Madera requires every rental housing unit's owner to hold a Rental Business License and register the property with the Neighborhood Revitalization Department, then submit to a routine…

Madera Municipal Code § 4-16.05 makes it unlawful to operate rental housing in the city without a City Rental Business License covering every property the same owner holds, a per-unit…

California evictions run through the unlawful detainer process. Under Code of Civil Procedure § 1161, nonpayment requires a 3-day notice to pay rent or quit (excluding weekends and…

Civil Code 1946.2 requires landlords statewide to have just cause to terminate tenancies of qualifying tenants who have lived in a covered unit at least 12 months.

California Civil Code § 1954 limits when a landlord may enter a rented home. Except in emergencies, abandonment, or with tenant consent, the landlord must give reasonable written…

California sets no fixed dollar or percentage cap on rent late fees, but a late fee in a residential lease is treated as liquidated damages. Under Civil Code § 1671, such a fee is…

To end a California month-to-month tenancy, a tenant gives 30 days' written notice. A landlord gives 30 days if the tenant has lived there under a year, or 60 days if a year or more…

California limits annual rent increases statewide to 5% plus the local change in the cost of living, capped at 10%, under the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB-1482). It also lets…

California requires written notice before raising a month-to-month tenant's rent. Under Civ. Code § 827, increases of 10% or less in 12 months need 30 days' notice; increases above 10%…

As of July 1, 2024, California landlords may collect no more than one month's rent as a security deposit, regardless of whether the unit is furnished. The deposit, minus any lawful…

California adverse possession requires five years of continuous, open, hostile possession AND payment of all property taxes during that period under Code of Civil Procedure § 325. A…

Madera enforces a nightly curfew for anyone under 18: minors cannot be in a public place or on business premises from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Municipal Code Section 4-4.02 also makes…

Madera closes its parks overnight: no one may enter, remain, or loiter in a city park between 10:00 p.m. and daylight from November 1 through March 1, or between 11:00 p.m. and…

Madera Municipal Code § 4-16.11(C) makes clear that the city's phased rollout of its Rental Housing Inspection Program never limits its power to inspect a specific unit once a tenant…

Madera caps residential buildings at 35 feet in the R(A), R(1), and R(2) zones and 50 feet in R(3), with detached accessory buildings limited to 15 feet, under Municipal Code §…

Madera caps building coverage at 75% of lot area in Professional Office zones and 50% in Industrial Park zones. Both limits count main and accessory buildings together against the…

Madera's residential yard rules set a 15-foot front setback (20 feet for street-facing garages), a 5-foot interior side yard, a 10-foot exterior side yard, and a 15- or 10-foot rear…

Madera limits residential garage and yard sales to the first Saturday and/or Sunday of each month, no more than two consecutive days, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., under Municipal…

Madera Municipal Code § 10-3.421 lets the Planning Commission grant a conditional use permit for farming on residential, commercial or industrial land that won't be developed for more…

Madera Municipal Code § 10-3.418 shields commercial agricultural operations from nuisance claims once they've run more than one year without being a nuisance when they began, tracking…

Madera requires every mobile food preparation unit, lunch wagon, and pushcart operator to hold a business license, a use permit under Article 13, and an operator's permit under §…

Madera Municipal Code § 10-3.416(D) caps pushcarts at six feet by four feet, bars stopping within 75 feet of a street intersection, and limits any mobile food unit to 30 minutes…

Madera Municipal Code § 10-3.416(C)(6) bars vendors from operating within 15 feet of any crosswalk or fire hydrant, in diagonal parking spaces, on curbs painted for restricted parking…

Madera caps light from an exterior illuminated sign, including a billboard or advertising structure, at ten candlepower measured ten feet from the sign, and requires the fixture be…

Madera's Industrial Park (IP) zoning bans glare and heat from crossing a lot line. Madera Municipal Code § 10-3.11.506(E) sets an absolute standard, not a numeric threshold: any glare…

Madera Municipal Code § 4-6.01 bans planting or transplanting any tree on public property, a street right-of-way, or on private land so it overhangs the right-of-way, unless the…

California provides statewide protections for native oak woodlands and heritage trees through CEQA review, Public Resources Code, and Forest Practice Rules that apply uniformly.

Madera requires owners of vacant parcels five acres or smaller, the majority of the city's vacant land, to totally mow or remove all weeds, brush, rubbish and rank growth under §…

Madera bars any building from standing vacant more than 90 days unless the owner shows active repair, active marketing, or active blight-prevention maintenance, and requires annual…

Madera confines adult-oriented businesses to its C-2 Heavy Commercial and I Industrial zones and requires a 1,000-foot buffer from any other adult business, residential zone, park…

Madera taxes every pawnbroker $200 a year under its business license code, defining the trade broadly to cover both pawn loans against pledged goods and buy-resell arrangements agreed…

Junk and secondhand goods dealers in unincorporated Madera County need board of supervisors permission plus a sheriff background check, and must log and hold every item they buy.

Home occupations in unincorporated Madera County can't perform repair services beyond small items a single person can carry without power tools or mechanical equipment: no auto repair.

Operating a massage business in unincorporated Madera County without a sheriff-issued establishment permit is unlawful, and anyone performing massage for pay must be a CAMTC-certified…

California requires statewide licensing of tobacco and vape retailers under the STAKE Act and the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Licensing Act. Business and Professions Code 22970…

Anyone without a permanent Madera business address who peddles, solicits orders, or photographs door to door needs a license from the License Tax Collector, fingerprinting by the…

Madera Municipal Code § 4-14.02 makes it unlawful, and a public nuisance, to camp, occupy camp facilities, or use camp paraphernalia on any public or private property in the city, with…

Madera regulates building and land alteration inside FEMA-mapped flood hazard areas under Municipal Code Chapter 3-3, Floodplain Management. The regulated area follows the city's 2008…

Every new subdivision in Madera must collect and route its storm water runoff through an approved storm drain system sized for the watershed's full future development, not just the…

Construction and grading projects in unincorporated Madera County must retain sediment on site and hold cut slopes to 1:1 and fill slopes to 1 1/2:1 under the county's drainage and…

Developments approved under Madera County's conditional-use zoning chapter within state fire-responsibility areas must maintain their defensible space every year to keep it usable in a…

Unincorporated Madera County requires new and substantially improved residential structures in FEMA-mapped special flood hazard areas to have the lowest floor built at or above the…

The California Coastal Act, Public Resources Code sections 30000 through 30900, requires Coastal Development Permits for nearly all work in the coastal zone and gives the Coastal…

Madera charges a 9% transient room tax on hotel and short-term lodging occupancy under its Uniform Transient Room Tax Law, collected by the operator at the time rent is paid and…

Madera caps its card rooms at 24 tables citywide, all already assigned to two existing businesses, and runs them under a dedicated licensing chapter enacted to conform with the state…

California Penal Code § 326.5 lets only tax-exempt nonprofits, mobilehome park associations, senior groups, and school-affiliated charities run bingo, and only under a local city or…

California law exempts private home card games from gambling regulation entirely. Penal Code § 337j(e)(2)(D) excludes any card game played in a private home or residence from the…

California has no legal sports betting, in stores or online. Penal Code section 337a criminalizes bookmaking, pool-selling, and placing or accepting any bet on the result of a sporting…

Madera's local density bonus ordinance, § 10-3-5.101 et seq., grants housing developments of five or more units a density increase above the General Plan maximum when a set share of…

Madera property owners must keep all pipes, faucets, and fixtures leak-free and repair any unidentified water discharge at their own cost, under Madera Municipal Code § 5-5.10. Leaks…

Unincorporated Madera County doesn't set a general recycled-water use ordinance, but its cross-connection rules require an approved air-gap backflow device wherever reclaimed water is…

Unincorporated Madera County's Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance protects turf replacement: covenants, conditions, and restrictions tied to a covered permit cannot prohibit…

Madera must issue a nondiscretionary building permit the same day for over-the-counter, or within 1-3 business days for electronic, applications for small rooftop solar systems up to…

California Civil Code section 714 makes any HOA covenant, deed restriction, or governing document provision that effectively prohibits or restricts a solar energy system void and…

California's Solar Rights Act and the SolarAPP+ mandate (SB 379) require expedited permit review of small residential solar systems, preempting restrictive local processes.

Unincorporated Madera County's landscape ordinance directs that invasive plant species be avoided in new and rehabilitated landscape plantings, particularly near parks, buffers…

Unincorporated Madera County requires every motor vehicle burglar alarm to auto-shutoff within fifteen minutes, and bars owners from letting an audible alarm run longer than that.

Unincorporated Madera County bans operating any device that produces vibration above the 'vibration perception threshold' at the property line, the standard the code applies to…

Madera County bans charcoal grills outright at every short-term rental in the unincorporated county and requires all other grills, barbeques, and outdoor cooking apparatuses to sit at…

Madera County has no dedicated data center ordinance. In unincorporated areas a data center is an industrial use, sited in the IL (Industrial, Light) or IH (Industrial, Heavy)…

Madera County holds stationary noise from data-center cooling and generators to its General Plan Noise Element: 50 dB Leq daytime and 45 dB Leq nighttime, measured at a nearby home's…

Unincorporated Madera County law declares any premises infested with rodents a public nuisance outright, no permit or notice needed to trigger it. Madera County Code § 7.28.020, on the…

California sets a statewide minimum wage floor under Labor Code 1182.12, $16.90 per hour for all employers as of January 2026. Local governments are not preempted and may set higher…

California's Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act under Labor Code 245-249 mandates paid sick leave for nearly all employees statewide. SB 616 (2023) raised the minimum to 40 hours…

California regulates concealed carry weapons licenses statewide under Penal Code 26150 through 26225. Senate Bill 2 (2023) imposes uniform sensitive-place restrictions and applicant…

California preempts most local firearm regulation under Government Code 53071 and Penal Code 25605, reserving licensing, registration, and manufacture authority to the state. However…

California broadly prohibits open carry of firearms statewide under Penal Code 25850 (loaded firearms in public) and Penal Code 26350 (open carry of unloaded handguns). The prohibition…

California prohibits carrying loaded firearms in vehicles statewide under Penal Code 25400 and 25850. Unloaded handguns transported in private vehicles must be in a locked container or…

California HOAs may levy regular and special assessments, charge late fees and interest, record liens, and ultimately foreclose on delinquent owners under the Davis-Stirling Act. State…

California's Davis-Stirling Act gives every HOA member the right to inspect and copy association records under Civil Code § 5205. Boards must produce current-year records within 10…

California overrides HOA governing documents on several owner protections. The Davis-Stirling Act and related Civil Code sections bar HOAs from prohibiting solar systems, U.S. flag…

California voids any HOA governing-document clause that effectively bans or unreasonably restricts a clothesline or drying rack in an owner's exclusive-use backyard. Civil Code Section…

Civil Code section 4735 voids any HOA rule that bans low-water plants, turf replacement, or artificial turf, and bars fines for cutting back watering during a declared drought…

Civil Code § 4745 voids any HOA covenant or governing-document rule that prohibits or unreasonably restricts installing an EV charging station in an owner's unit or designated parking…

Civil Code § 4705 bars every California homeowners association from limiting a member's display of the United States flag on their own lot or within their exclusive-use common area…

California law caps homeowners association fines at $100 per violation or the amount listed in the association's published penalty schedule, whichever is less. Civil Code section 5850…

A California homeowners association cannot foreclose on a member’s home over unpaid dues until the delinquent assessments alone reach $1,800, or until the assessments secured by the…

Civil Code § 4741 bars every California homeowners association from adopting or enforcing a rule that prohibits, or unreasonably restricts, renting out a separate interest, and sets a…

Sobriety checkpoints are lawful in California and stopping at one is a statutory obligation, not a courtesy. Vehicle Code § 2814.2(a) requires a driver to stop and submit to a sobriety…

California is one of the few states that answers this by statute rather than by case law alone. Penal Code § 148(g) says that photographing or making an audio or video recording of a…

California has no general stop-and-identify statute. The old Penal Code § 647(e), which required a person lawfully detained to give "credible and reliable" identification, was held…

California has no statute that requires you to consent to a search of your car, and none that requires an officer to warn you that you may refuse. What the Legislature and the voters…

A low-speed vehicle in California may not be driven on any roadway with a speed limit above 35 miles per hour. Vehicle Code section 21260 permits it to cross a faster road only where…

California prohibits grocery stores and large retailers from providing single-use plastic carryout bags under Public Resources Code 42280-42288, enacted by SB 270 (2014) and ratified…

California restricts expanded polystyrene food containers statewide through SB 54 (2022) packaging requirements under Public Resources Code 42040-42081. The law mandates that…

California Public Resources Code 42270-42273, enacted by AB 1884 (2018), prohibits full-service restaurants from providing single-use plastic straws unless requested by the customer…

California prohibits sale of tobacco and vapor products to anyone under 21 statewide under Business and Professions Code 22958, enacted by SBX2-7 in 2016. The Tobacco 21 standard…

California bans retail sale of most flavored tobacco products statewide under Health and Safety Code 104559.5, enacted by SB 793 (2020) and upheld by voters via Proposition 31 in…

California works from a closed list: Vehicle Code section 24003 says no vehicle may carry any lamp or illuminating device not required or permitted by the code, so an accessory light…

California measures dash cam placement in square inches. Vehicle Code section 26708(b)(13) lets a video event recorder occupy a seven-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield…

Lane splitting is lawful in California. Vehicle Code section 21658.1, added by AB 51 in 2016, defines it as driving a motorcycle with two wheels in contact with the ground between rows…

California does not let you put a cover over your license plate. Vehicle Code section 5201(c) allows exactly two things: a full car cover on a lawfully parked vehicle, and a license…

No section of the California Vehicle Code makes it an offense for a private motorist to own, carry or use a radar detector. The prohibition in Vehicle Code section 28150 reaches only…

California permits metal studded tires only between November 1 and April 30, and only where the studs are tungsten carbide or another suitable material and the metal touching the road…

California never publishes a "legal VLT" for front side windows because it does not permit aftermarket darkening there at all. Vehicle Code section 26708(d) allows only clear…