Stanislaus County, CA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Stanislaus County's Department of Environmental Resources Code Enforcement investigates blight on unincorporated private property, including illegal dumping, refuse accumulation, and nuisance conditions that create health and safety problems. The County's stated approach is to "work to achieve voluntary compliance through notification and education," escalating only "when necessary" to "civil citations, boarding structures, removing junk and rubbish, towing abandoned vehicles, and abating other nuisance conditions." Per Code Enforcement's published FAQ, "junk" is defined as surplus, secondhand, damaged, discarded, obsolete, salvaged, scrapped, worn-out, wrecked, or dismantled material, and a property may store no more than 200 square feet of junk unless permitted as a junkyard; placing junk behind a fence does not exempt it. Administrative fines escalate to "$100 citation for the first offense, $200 for the second offense, and $400 for any subsequent offenses for the same violation within a one year timeframe." Owners who do not abate may have the County perform the work, with costs assessed against the property as a lien. Disputes are heard by the County's Nuisance Abatement Hearing Board. Code Enforcement is located at 3800 Cornucopia Way, Suite C, Modesto, and can be reached at (209) 525-6700. This is a County ordinance and process, distinct from the cities, which run their own code enforcement.