Garden Grove, CA Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

36, titled Human Waste Disposal in Public, was adopted by Ordinance 2111 in 1989 and sits among the Code's public-health chapters alongside the Health Services Fee chapter administered with the Orange County Health Care Agency. 010 splits the ban into two clauses: subsection A bars urinating or defecating in any common area on private property, such as a shared apartment courtyard or a parking lot, other than in a toilet receptacle within a restroom structure, and subsection B bars the same conduct on any public street, sidewalk, alley, park, or other public place, again unless a restroom toilet is used.

010: a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and/or six months in county jail, though the City Attorney can instead charge it as an infraction under the Government Code Section 36900 fine schedule. 020. The ordinance's broad 'common area on private property' language means it isn't limited to sidewalks or alleys downtown; relieving oneself in a shared yard, breezeway, or lot outside an actual restroom falls under subsection A just as a public right-of-way falls under subsection B. The Code doesn't carve out any exception for events or job sites, but a properly enclosed portable toilet still satisfies the 'toilet receptacle within the structure of a restroom facility' requirement.