La Mesa, CA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Section 10.160.050 lists the additional substandard conditions that make La Mesa's blight ordinance bite beyond structural defects: unpainted buildings or buildings with dry rot, warping, or termite infestation; broken windows that invite trespassers; inoperable or abandoned motor vehicles, trailers, campers, or boats stored for unreasonable periods; unattended broken equipment that is an attractive nuisance to children; clotheslines in front yards; and trash or garbage containers stored in front or side yards outside permitted collection times. Section 10.160.030 separately defines an 'unsafe building' by structural criteria such as inadequate exits, likely collapse from deterioration, or twenty-five percent or more damage to supporting members, while Section 10.160.040 defines 'substandard structures' through inadequate sanitation, hazardous wiring or plumbing, and improper occupancy.

Section 10.160.080 declares any property the building official or fire chief determines unsafe or substandard to be a public nuisance that 'may be abated by repair, rehabilitation, demolition, removal or clearing.' The process runs through Section 10.160.100, which has the building official obtain the fire chief's written report before proceeding, and Section 10.160.110, which sets a City Council hearing at least twenty days out after a title search identifies all interested parties. Section 10.160.120 requires the notice to describe the property and defects and to be served twenty days before the hearing, and Section 10.160.130's model 'Notice to Vacate' warns that occupying the building or defacing the notice is itself an infraction, with repair or demolition due within forty days of the hearing. If the owner does not comply, the city performs the work and recovers its cost by assessment and lien on the property.