Monterey Park, CA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Monterey Park Municipal Code Section 6.08.030 makes it unlawful to deposit or leave garbage, offal, rubbish, bulky items, recyclables, or a refuse container in any public street, parkway, alley, sidewalk, or other public thoroughfare, in a vacant lot, or within the required front yard or the front-facade setback of an improved lot, except in the manner the chapter itself allows. A separate clause bars an owner or occupant from placing refuse curbside without a written permit under Sections 13.12.010 through 13.12.040, though the code carves out loading and unloading of boxes, barrels or crates across a street when no other reasonable option exists and the street clears promptly. Subsection (c) declares any property kept in violation a public nuisance.

Enforcement runs through Section 6.08.040. When the director of community development or a designee finds a violation, the city mails and personally delivers or posts notice on the lot, giving the owner or occupant three days to remove the violation before the city abates the nuisance itself and charges the cost to the property. That notice goes into a city file recording the mailing and posting dates. If the director of public works must abate the nuisance with city crews or a private contractor, the city keeps an accounting of the cost and mails the owner or occupant a notice with ten days to object; the director then makes a final written decision on the abatement charge, which appears on the property's water and solid waste collection bill. Because Chapter 6.08 carries no separate criminal penalty for illegal dumping itself, a violation defaults to the citywide misdemeanor rule of Section 4.10.010, exposing a violator to the general fine and jail penalties of Section 4.10.020.