Arcadia, CA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 5700 of the Arcadia Municipal Code, in Article V, Chapter 7, Vacant Lots, has two targets. It prohibits any person from depositing, placing, leaving or dumping any matter whatsoever on a vacant lot, and lists earth, sand, gravel, rock, concrete, asphalt, debris, dead vegetation, brick, construction waste or materials, wood, compost and metal. It also prohibits the record owner of the lot from permitting or allowing that matter to remain, so an owner is liable for what a stranger leaves behind.

Two exceptions apply. No person violates the section when the work is done for an activity on the lot authorized by a valid permit issued under Article VIII of the Municipal Code (the building regulations), or when it is carried out by or at the request of a governmental entity on property that entity owns.

The section then adds a duty to fence out repeat dumping. A record owner who has been mailed a City notice to remove matter described in § 5700 or § 5120.5 must install improvements on the lot and on the contiguous public right-of-way that block access, following the Municipal Code and specifications on file in the Department of Public Works. The deadline is twenty days after receipt of written notice from the Director of Public Works, mailed certified to the owner's address on the City Clerk's records and the last equalized assessment roll.

The companion rule, § 5120.5, prohibits leaving solid waste, organic waste, recyclables or other waste on any public street, road, highway, parkway, alley, sidewalk or other public thoroughfare, on any vacant lot, or in the required front yard of an improved lot. Section 5120.5.2 requires collection containers to be removed from the street, sidewalk or parkway by five a.m. on the day following collection.