Brentwood HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

Brentwood does not have a permit system for short-term rentals. Chapter 17.796 makes it unlawful to offer or rent a dwelling, or any part of one, for 30 consecutive days or less. The definition also covers renting out pools, courts, backyards and other amenities on their own. The chapter was last amended in December 2024.

That gives a Brentwood board two tools. Your own CC&Rs may prohibit short stays, and California Civil Code section 4741 does not stop an association from prohibiting rentals of 30 days or less. Separately, anyone can report a suspected violation to the city’s code enforcement staff.

A stored vehicle may not be used for living or sleeping. The code does not say how these rules apply on streets an association owns, so confirm with Brentwood Police what the city will enforce inside your community, and rely on your own rules and state towing law there.

Municipal Code section 14.01.510 sets permanent rules for every city water customer:

• No irrigation with drinking water between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.
• No irrigation during measurable rain or for 48 hours after.
• No runoff onto neighboring property, walkways, roads or parking lots.
• Leaks must be fixed within 48 hours of learning about them.
• Fountains must recirculate.

Assigned watering days apply only when the city declares a water shortage emergency. Ask the water conservation hotline at (925) 516-5373 what stage is in effect.

The city’s Convert for Cash program pays $1 per square foot for lawn conversion, $1 per linear foot for drip conversion and $5 per station for a smart controller. The maximum is $5,000 per water account for commercial accounts and multi-family properties of five units or more, and $1,000 for smaller residential accounts. The program terms do not name HOAs, so ask the hotline how a common-area account is classified. A city inspection is required before work starts, and the lawn must be in a front yard or publicly visible area.

Brentwood also has about 41 miles of recycled water pipe serving parks, medians and other large landscapes. If your association irrigates large common areas, ask Public Works whether a connection is available.

A state law passed in 2023 (AB 1572) will bar the use of drinking water on nonfunctional turf in HOA common areas starting January 1, 2029. A board with decorative lawn can use a rebate to pay for part of a conversion it will have to make anyway.

On owners’ lots, Civil Code section 4735 prevents an association from banning low-water plants or artificial turf as a replacement for lawn.

Brentwood’s landscape and lighting assessment districts are formed under a 1972 state law and charged by benefit, not by property value. A single-family home counts as one unit, a condominium or townhome as 0.75 and an apartment as 0.5. The citywide district has zones for arterial street lights, medians and roadsides, local frontage landscaping and parks.

One example shows the scale. The Deer Ridge landscape district covers 14 sites, such as the entry monument and parkway strips, across 1,056 single-family parcels. Its 2024-25 assessment was $91.56 per home, and the maintenance portion rises each year by the greater of Bay Area inflation or 2%.

Newer development is also annexed into a community facilities district before building permits are issued. Under Chapter 17.636 these districts fund flood and storm drainage, open space, joint-use school sites and public safety.

Before the association pays a contractor to maintain a landscaped strip, a sound wall or a basin, confirm who owns the parcel and whether a district already covers it.

Chapter 7.03 makes street tree maintenance the responsibility of the property owner, and no permit is needed for routine care. A city permit is required to trim, cut or injure a street tree or city-owned tree beyond that. Trees must clear sidewalks by at least 10 feet and streets by at least 15 feet, and if a street tree dies the owner replaces it. We found no heritage tree ordinance for trees on private property.

Section 12.12.010 gives the adjacent owner the duty to repair and maintain the sidewalk, including the parking strip and curb, and makes the owner liable for injuries. The exception is damage caused solely by trees the city planted. Where the association owns the frontage, that owner is the association.

Section 8.36.035 defines weeds to include dry, dead or dying grass and vegetation more than three inches high, and lawn grass may not exceed twelve inches. If the city abates a nuisance itself, the cost can become a lien or a special assessment on the property.

Con Fire runs the weed abatement program for vacant lots and open space. For 2025 the district’s deadline for east county, Brentwood included, was May 12. Check the district’s page each spring for the current date. Properties must keep meeting the standard for the whole fire season, which usually runs to about late October.

Con Fire says its updated fire hazard severity zone maps took effect July 10, 2025, and it posts a map for Brentwood. Look up each common-area parcel, and ask the district what applies in that zone.

Under section 9.32.050, construction runs Monday through Friday from 7 a.m., with an end time of 3:30 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. depending on conditions in the section, so read it before you set a contractor’s hours. Saturday work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. needs the city engineer’s written approval. Power tools in residential zones are limited to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Routine gardening and lawn mowing are not treated as construction. Residential noise limits are 60 decibels from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and 45 decibels overnight. Your own rules can set shorter hours.

Chapter 10.17 lets the City Council designate golf cart routes, by resolution, on streets with a speed limit of 25 mph or less that adjoin or serve a golf course or lie within a development with golf facilities. Carts may not be driven on streets or sidewalks that have not been designated. Ask the city which streets are designated in your community before the board writes its own cart rules.

Several Brentwood planned developments are zoned for age-restricted occupancy. Federal rules for 55+ housing require that at least 80% of occupied homes have at least one resident who is 55 or older, that the community publish and follow policies showing it intends to operate as 55+ housing and that it verify ages through surveys updated at least every two years. Keeping that survey current is a board job.

Brentwood’s Right to Farm ordinance, Chapter 8.01, says a properly run agricultural operation is not a nuisance. Sellers of property within 2,000 feet of agricultural land must give buyers a disclosure, and complaints go through a notice and grievance process. The city’s noise chapter exempts farming too. Boards on the city’s edge should set expectations with owners.

The city collects trash itself. Under section 8.16.360, carts go out by 5 a.m. on collection day, come in by 10 p.m. and are kept screened from view the rest of the week.