Gilroy, CA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Chapter 5B applies only to property in an industrial or commercial zoning district, or used as industrial or commercial property; Chapter 5C separately covers residential blight. Section 5B.2 defines blighted property to include an abandoned, unsecured building or structure, a partially built or demolished structure on which work has stopped for six months or more, property in a state that attracts children, vagrants or criminals, a building in disrepair with deteriorated exterior walls or roofs, broken windows or doors, or defaced walls and fences visible from a public right-of-way, overgrown or diseased vegetation that harbors vermin or creates a fire hazard, exposed solid waste visible from the street for more than seventy-two consecutive hours or stored so wind can carry it off-site, and an abandoned or unmaintained swimming pool or pond with polluted water.

Section 5B.3 declares any blighted property a public nuisance, and § 5B.4 makes it unlawful for an owner, agent, manager, lessee or occupant to maintain or allow the blighted condition. Under § 5B.6, once the city administrator finds a property blighted, the administrator can order or take abatement action, and except for imminent-danger cases handled under Article II, the responsible party must be given at least thirty calendar days to make corrections, though the administrator may authorize a longer compliance schedule if reasonable. Section 5B.10 makes any violation an infraction, with each day of continuing violation a separate offense; an owner cited more than three times for the same blight condition in twelve months must also enter a continuing maintenance agreement with a qualified provider and show the city administrator proof of it. Section 5B.11 holds jointly or commonly owned blighted property's owners jointly and severally liable, apportioned by ownership share.