Gilroy, CA Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

Article VIII of Chapter 20 covers two related sidewalk hazards. Section 20.60 caps hedges, shrubbery, and other view obstructions at three feet above curb level within the sightline triangle at any street corner, measured twenty feet back along the property lines from the corner. Section 20.61 then reaches obstructions anywhere along a public sidewalk, street, or gutter, not just at corners, banning any hedge, shrubbery, trash, or rubble that blocks pedestrian or vehicle passage. Section 20.62 treats a maintained obstruction as a public nuisance: once the city administrator or an authorized representative posts a notice to abate on the premises, the owner has twenty days to clear it, after which the city can enter the property and remove the obstruction itself.

Section 20.63 puts enforcement of the whole article under the city administrator, who may designate staff to investigate complaints and issue the required notices. Section 20.64 closes off a common defense, stating that an obstruction already in place when the article was adopted gets no exemption from the cross-visibility rule unless the article says so expressly. Section 20.65 sets the penalty by cross-reference: anyone violating any provision of the article is punished as provided in Section 1.7, the City Code's general penalty, which charges a first offense as an infraction up to $100, a second within a year up to $200, a third up to $500, and any further violation as a misdemeanor punishable by up to $1,000 and up to six months in county jail.