Pomona, CA Parking Rules: Curb Color Rules (2026)
Key Facts
- Authority
- City traffic engineer only
- Exception
- Authorized house-number painting
- First-offense fine
- Up to $100
- Repeat-offense fine
- Up to $500
- State law backup
- Vehicle Code § 21465
Summary
Pomona City Code Sec. 58-5 makes it unlawful for anyone except the city traffic engineer, or someone the engineer authorizes, to paint any street or curb surface. The only carve-out is painting house numbers on a curb once the property owner has complied with the Code's related numbering rules. Unauthorized curb painting is a code violation.
No person or agency, unless authorized by the city traffic engineer, shall paint any street or curb surface; provided, however, that this section shall not apply to the painting of numbers on a curb surface by any person who has complied with the sections of this Code or the provisions of any ordinance or resolution of the city pertaining thereto.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: City Code: Supplement 31).
Full Breakdown
Sec. 58-5 traces to the 1959 Code (§ 32-4.7) and gives the city traffic engineer exclusive control over curb and street-surface painting throughout Pomona. No resident, HOA, contractor or business may repaint a curb to create their own red, yellow or white zone; only the traffic engineer, acting under Chapter 58's Article II enforcement powers, or a person the engineer specifically authorizes, may do so. The single written exception lets a property owner paint house numbers on a curb, provided the owner has already complied with the Code's separate house-numbering and related ordinance requirements.
The rule exists to keep Pomona's curb color system reliable and enforceable. The traffic engineer uses yellow paint for loading zones (Sec. 58-201), white paint for passenger loading zones (Sec. 58-202), and green paint or posted signs for time-limit zones running 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Sec. 58-232). If private parties could repaint curbs on their own, drivers and enforcement officers could no longer trust what a given curb color means on a block. State law backs the local rule: Vehicle Code § 21465 separately makes it an offense to display unauthorized traffic signs, signals or markings, giving both the California Highway Patrol and Pomona police overlapping authority to cite unauthorized curb painting.
Sec. 58-4 also makes it a separate violation to obliterate, remove or conceal any chalk mark or other official marking used by a police or city officer to enforce parking rules, closing off attempts to erase official markings to escape a citation.
Violations & Fines
Painting a curb without traffic engineer authorization is prosecuted as an infraction under the Code's general penalty, Sec. 1-7: up to $100 for a first offense, up to $200 for a second violation of the same provision within a year, and up to $500 for each additional violation within that year. Removing or defacing an official curb marking to evade parking enforcement is a separate offense under Sec. 58-4.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I paint a red curb in front of my Pomona house to stop people parking there?
Is it legal to paint my house number on the curb?
What happens if I scrub off an official yellow loading-zone marking?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Pomona
California rules heatmap·Compare Pomona to another location·View the California parking rules overview
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Curb Color Rules in Nearby Cities
How other cities in Los Angeles County handle curb color rules.