Hayward, CA Parking Rules: Curb Color Rules (2026)

Sec. 11, Painting or Marking Sidewalk, makes it unlawful for anyone to write, paint, mark, deface, or draw upon any sidewalk or roadway without first obtaining a permit from the Director of Public Works. That sweeps in curb painting generally, whether it is a business striping a loading zone, a contractor marking utility locations, or a resident painting a curb for any purpose beyond the one carve-out the section allows. That single exception sits in subsection (b): the owner of a single-family residence may place and maintain the street number of the residence on the vertical portion of the curb directly in front of the home, but only in the manner and form the City's building regulations specify, meaning the format, size, and placement still have to match what the City requires even though no permit is needed for that specific use.

Anyone painting a curb red for no-parking, adding a house number in a nonstandard style, or marking a curb for a private driveway or loading purpose outside that narrow residential street-number carve-out needs the Director of Public Works permit first. The rule sits in the same Article 5 sidewalk-obstruction framework as the debris-box and encroachment-permit sections, so it shares that article's general enforcement mechanism.