Ventura, CA Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Section 10.200.050 sits at the end of Chapter 10.200, the same chapter that regulates sitting and lying on sidewalks, and borrows that chapter's broad definition of "public place" from § 10.200.010: any area generally visible to public view, including alleys, bridges, buildings, driveways, parking lots, parks, plazas, sidewalks, and streets open to the general public, plus doorways and entrances to buildings or dwellings and their surrounding grounds. Within that definition, the section makes it unlawful for any person to urinate or defecate anywhere except when using "a urinal, toilet or commode located in a bathroom, restroom or other structure enclosed from public view." Unlike the sit-lie rule in § 10.200.030, the public urination and defecation ban is not geographically limited to downtown, the Ventura Avenue corridor, or specific zoning districts, and it carries no advance-warning requirement before an officer can cite a violation; the notice-before-citation protection in § 10.200.030(B) applies only to that section, not to § 10.200.050.

Ventura Police Department officers enforce the section citywide, including along the beachfront, the Ventura Pier area, and downtown nightlife corridors where the complaint volume is highest. Because the ordinance sits in the general municipal code rather than a chapter with its own penalty schedule, a violation defaults to the citywide misdemeanor penalty in § 1.150.020, though the city attorney retains discretion under § 1.150.030(C) to charge it instead as an infraction.