Oxnard, CA Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Section 16-322, carried forward from the 1964 Code (Sec. 4) and amended by Ordinance Nos. 1376 and 2372, is the city's baseline standard for where a dumpster or roll-off container sits on developed property. It applies broadly: any new development application for a commercial, industrial or institutional use, or for a residential project with five or more units, must show sufficient space for collection of recycled materials directly on the building plans submitted to the city. The ordinance does not leave placement entirely to the applicant.

The number and location of both the solid waste storage area and the recycling collection area must be specified in every permit, as required by the city's Solid Waste Division, so a project cannot obtain a building permit without the Division signing off on where the containers go. Screening is mandatory rather than optional: the code requires the disposal and recycling area to be properly screened from public streets by a fence not less than six feet in height, built to adopted city standards rather than any material the owner prefers.

Because the section sits in the zoning code's general regulations, it applies citywide across zoning districts rather than being limited to one overlay, and it works alongside separate accessory-structure screening standards that apply within specific residential and mixed-use projects. A property owner planning a new commercial building, warehouse, school or five-plus-unit apartment project should size and locate the trash enclosure, and the six-foot screening fence around it, before submitting for permit review, since the Solid Waste Division's sign-off on that layout is part of getting the permit issued at all.