Santa Ana, CA Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Santa Ana Municipal Code § 36-41(8), part of the chapter's "Miscellaneous driving movements and acts prohibited" list, states no person shall "[r]ide a bicycle or skateboard upon a sidewalk within a business district, as that term is defined in California Vehicle Code, Section 235. " Business district is defined by reference to the state Vehicle Code rather than a locally drawn map, so enforcement follows the state test for commercial frontage. Separately, § 36-48, "Skateboards prohibited from roadway and bicycle path," bars riding "any skateboard or motorized skateboard, in, on, over or upon any roadway" in the city, and bars motorized skateboards from any "bicycle lane, path or trail," whether or not that path sits within a roadway.

Together the two sections push skateboarding onto sidewalks outside business districts and away from streets and bike lanes for motorized boards. The Santa Ana Police Department enforces both; because neither carries its own fine, violations default to the citywide general penalty in § 1-8: a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $1,000, up to six months in jail, or both, though the city attorney may instead charge it as an infraction. Skate parks are regulated under a different chapter, § 31-5, which requires helmets, elbow pads and knee pads and imposes its own escalating fines of $50, $100 and $175 for repeat violations within a facility, plus a six-month banishment after a fourth offense, street skateboarding and park skateboarding are governed by entirely separate code sections.