La Mesa, CA Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Section 24.06.040(H) applies to all new commercial developments over two thousand five hundred square feet of building area and to existing developments adding more than two thousand five hundred square feet. Covered sites must provide trash enclosures containing dumpsters plus a separate area sized to serve the development for storing recyclable materials, and both must sit at least twenty feet back from any public street, measured from the street curb. Dumpsters have to be serviced as needed but not less than once a week, and enclosures must be built of solid masonry walls with solid gates meeting the access, size and location standards of the refuse collection service; the walls and gates themselves must be constructed of decorative, durable materials subject to Community Development Department approval.

All trash has to be stored in weather-protected receptacles, and any stored recyclable material must be protected from weather that would make it unmarketable. The code carves out one geographic exemption: developments within the downtown district that use joint collection facilities shared among nearby businesses are exempted from building their own standalone enclosure under this subsection. Every enclosure, whether required by this rule or provided voluntarily, is also covered by the chapter's general property-maintenance duty in Section 24.06.040(A), which requires yards and open areas around commercial buildings to stay free of waste, litter and junk.