Bakersfield HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

Chapter 17.74 of the Bakersfield Municipal Code, added by Ordinance 5218 in 2026, covers stays of one to less than 30 consecutive nights. Under section 17.74.030, no one may advertise, rent or operate a short-term rental in the city without a city permit.

This is the part that matters most to boards. Section 17.74.020 defines “prohibited buildings” where short-term rentals may not operate, such as ADUs, junior ADUs, deed-restricted affordable units, single-room occupancy and special group residences. The definition then says, word for word: “Prohibited buildings shall also apply to buildings with restrictive covenants or homeowners’ associations covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) that are not discriminatory (as defined in Government Code Section 12955).”

The permit section speaks to HOAs directly. Under section 17.74.030(B)(9), if a home is subject to the rules of a homeowners’ association or a non-discriminatory covenant that restricts short-term rentals, a city permit does not override those documents. The operator must also give the city written proof that the association allows short-term rentals when applying. In plain terms, an owner in a Bakersfield HOA should expect to need written proof from the association to complete a permit application. The definition is broadly worded, so ask the city how it treats a home whose documents say nothing about short-term rentals.

Before issuing a permit, the city inspects the home. The operator needs a city business tax certificate, a signed indemnification agreement and, if the operator is not the owner, a notarized owner consent form. A home with an open code enforcement case, or one whose permit was revoked or denied in the last 12 months, does not qualify. ADUs, junior ADUs, RVs, garages, pool houses, sheds and tents can never be used as short-term rentals.

Under section 17.74.060, the operator must also:

• Tell guests before they arrive the maximum occupancy, how many cars can park and where, the noise rules and the trash and recycling rules.
• Keep working fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms.
• Carry at least $500,000 in liability insurance that names the city as an additional insured, or book every stay through a platform with the same coverage or more.
• Collect the city’s transient lodging tax, which is 12% of the room charge. When a hosting platform handles the booking, the platform collects and pays it.

The operator and the property owner are jointly responsible for nuisance violations during a rental. If a permit is revoked, no home on that parcel can get a new one for at least 12 months (section 17.74.070). The City Council sets the permit fees by resolution (section 17.74.080), and we did not find the current amounts.

A city permit does not override your CC&Rs. California Civil Code section 4741 does not stop an association from prohibiting rentals of 30 days or less, so check what your documents say before an owner applies. Good practice, not a legal requirement: decide who on the board answers requests for written proof, base the answer on what your governing documents actually say, and keep a copy in the owner’s file.

The city’s ADU resource guide, dated February 2024, points to Chapter 17.65 of the municipal code for the local rules. It describes these standards:

The guide says one off-street parking space is generally required, with exceptions such as garage conversions and homes within half a mile of public transit. Applicants pay a site plan review fee, and building permits may bring connection fees and school impact fees. For questions, call Development Services at (661) 326-3733 and ask for a planner. State ADU law has changed since 2024, so confirm the current standards with the city.

Inside your association, California Civil Code section 4751 makes void any CC&R provision that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts building an ADU or junior ADU on a single-family lot. Your association can still apply reasonable rules, such as architectural review.

The property maintenance chapter also lists a vehicle, trailer, camper or boat parked on an unpaved front yard, or a side yard next to a street, as a public nuisance (section 8.27.010). The city’s Code Enforcement answers to common questions say a motorhome may be parked on the street for up to 72 hours, and that vehicles must be on an approved paved surface, typically concrete or asphalt. Parking on the lawn can bring a misdemeanor citation after 24 hours’ notice. Police may tow and store a vehicle that breaks the 72-hour rule.

In the code sections we read, we did not find a city rule against keeping an RV or boat on a paved driveway. Inside your community, your CC&Rs and parking rules control that, and on private association streets your own rules and state towing law do most of the work.

To report lawn parking, a junk vehicle or another problem on private property, call Code Enforcement’s 24-hour complaint line at (661) 326-3712 and leave a message, or file in person at 1715 Chester Avenue on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Complaints can also go in by mail, fax or email. Give the exact address and describe the problem. You do not have to leave your name, and the city’s policy is to keep the source of a complaint confidential, though a court can order it released.

Bakersfield is not served by a single water utility. The city’s Water Department publishes a water purveyor map so you can look up who serves each address. Check every common-area meter, because a large association can straddle a boundary.

The city’s Water Resources Department runs a domestic water system that provides drinking water to more than 143,000 residents and local businesses. California Water Service (Cal Water) formed its Bakersfield District in 1926. It serves Bakersfield, Olcese and North Garden, and it also operates the City of Bakersfield water system under an operations and maintenance contract.

The city’s Stage 2 list also bans using drinking water to wash sidewalks, driveways, patios, parking lots and other hard surfaces, requires a shut-off nozzle on any hose used to wash a vehicle and bans outdoor watering during and for 48 hours after measurable rain. The city recommends cutting back to two days a week.

Nonfunctional turf. On September 16, 2026, the City Council adopted Ordinance 5231, with an effective date of October 16, 2026, which adds a nonfunctional turf rule to section 14.02.010. Starting January 1, 2029, drinking water may not be used to irrigate nonfunctional turf in the common areas of homeowners’ associations and common interest developments. Grass in a recreational use area or community space, such as a playground, picnic area or pet exercise area, counts as functional turf. Grass in street rights-of-way and parking lots does not. Water needed to keep trees and other perennial plants that are not turf healthy is still allowed, as is water needed for an immediate health or safety need. Fines under section 14.02.035 are $50 for a first offense, $150 for a second and $250 to $1,000 for each further offense in a calendar year.

State law points the same way. A state law passed in 2023 (AB 1572) sets the same January 1, 2029 date for HOA common areas. On owners’ own lots, Civil Code section 4735 prevents an association from banning low-water plants or artificial turf.

Rebates. The city and Cal Water offer up to $150 in rebates on high-efficiency toilets, clothes washers and smart irrigation controllers, a lawn-to-garden rebate of $3 per square foot for 250 to 1,500 square feet and a spray-to-drip rebate of $0.50 per square foot for the same range. Free conservation kits go to single-family residential customers, one per address every three years. Cal Water requires pre-approval before a lawn-to-garden project starts, with 3 approved plants per 100 square feet converted, and artificial turf does not qualify. Cal Water also lists commercial programs for smart controllers, large rotary nozzles and pressure-regulated sprinkler bodies. Neither page mentions HOAs, so ask Cal Water which program fits a common-area project.

The State Fire Marshal released its recommended Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps for local responsibility areas in Kern County on March 10, 2025. Chapter 8.42 of the municipal code, added by Ordinance 5195 in 2025, adopts the Fire Hazard Severity Zones recommended by the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). Areas on the very high zone map are subject to Government Code sections 51175 through 51188, the state rules for very high fire hazard severity zones, plus any other city or state requirements. The Bakersfield Fire Department enforces the chapter. The official map, called “City Fire Hazard Severity Zones,” is posted on the fire department’s LRA Fire Zones page, which also has a city address look-up tool.

That page explains that the zones (moderate, high and very high) decide where the state’s defensible space standards and wildland-urban interface building codes apply. It also says the city had to adopt a wildland-urban interface ordinance for very high zones by July 10, 2025 and was preparing one. We did not confirm whether that ordinance has been adopted, so ask the fire department’s prevention staff, who take questions by email at prevention@bakersfieldfire.us. The state’s defensible space disclosure at sale (Civil Code section 1102.19) applies to homes in high and very high zones.

Under Bakersfield Municipal Code section 8.28.010, weeds on private property or in any public street, sidewalk or alley are a public nuisance that the city can abate. “Weeds” include brush that becomes a fire menace to nearby homes when dry, plus dry grass, stubble, dead shrubs, dead trees, litter and other flammable material that creates a fire hazard.

• Under section 8.28.020, discarded items left outdoors and exposed to view are also a nuisance if they would hamper fighting or preventing a fire on the property.
• Each day a violation continues is a separate offense (section 8.28.022).
• The fire chief decides how a nuisance is abated, usually by removing all the weeds, and can direct mowing, discing or other methods (section 8.28.025).
• Good practice, not a legal requirement: if your association owns open space, basins or vacant lots, clear them before the grass dries out.

Chapter 13.04 of the municipal code lets the City Council pay for the upkeep of local improvements by spreading yearly charges across the parcels in a maintenance district. Section 13.04.021 sets the city’s policy: every new development that benefits from storm drain facilities, landscaping in the public right-of-way (streetscape) or public parks goes into a maintenance district. The city can also ask a development to form or join one as a condition of a zone change, general plan amendment, grading permit, conditional use permit or site plan review. Under section 13.04.022, a final tract map cannot be recorded until a maintenance district covers the future upkeep of its storm drains, right-of-way landscaping and any required public park. New districts can be merged each year, around July 1, into the city’s metro-wide consolidated maintenance district.

The director of public works prepares a yearly budget for maintaining the improvements (section 13.04.120), and the assessment is levied on or before July 1 each year (section 13.04.023). It is collected on the property tax bill, at the same time and with the same penalties as property taxes. These assessments are separate from association dues. The city’s GIS maps show the boundaries of its Consolidated Maintenance Districts. One city filing with the state, adding a tract to the Consolidated Maintenance District, described the work as maintenance of public park, street and median landscaping.

This matters to boards. If your tract is in a city maintenance district, the city may maintain some streetscape, median or park landscaping that your board assumes is its own. To see whether your tract is in a district, look up your parcels on the city’s maintenance district map and look for the assessment on an owner’s property tax bill. We could not find a city page that lists what each zone pays for, so ask Public Works before you bid out work. That way owners do not pay twice for the same strip.

The city’s Public Works Department runs garbage and recycling through its Solid Waste Division. Each home gets a 96-gallon garbage cart, a 96-gallon blue recycling cart and a 64-gallon green organics cart. Under the state’s organics law (SB 1383), food scraps, food-soiled paper and yard waste go in the green cart. Plastic containers go in the blue cart even if they have food on them.

The code treats a building with five or more units, including condominiums, as multifamily (section 8.32.020). Owners of multifamily properties must provide enough labeled containers for trash, recycling and organics and check the recycling and organics containers for contamination (section 8.32.110). They must also give tenants sorting information every year, give new tenants that information within 14 days of moving in and let the city in for inspections (section 8.32.150). Where the owner and the person who runs the property day to day disagree, the property owner is responsible (section 8.32.110).

Good practice, not a legal requirement: if your community has buildings of five or more units, ask the Solid Waste Division who holds each bin account and who the city treats as responsible. Then add the yearly sorting notice to your calendar. Residents can drop off organic waste at no charge at the city’s Organics Recycling and Composting Facility, 2601 South Mount Vernon Avenue, open Tuesday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The city’s Code Enforcement answers to common questions say these construction hours also cover motorized landscaping equipment, and that any exception needs the city manager’s approval before the work starts. The code lets the city manager allow night work for up to three days at a time, with one extension of up to three more days. For loud parties, music or vehicles, the city lists the Bakersfield Police Department at (661) 327-7111. Other noise complaints go to Code Enforcement. Write your contractor’s working hours into each landscape and construction contract.