Cameron Park HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

In most of California, only an association or the owners themselves enforce CC&Rs. In Cameron Park the CSD does it for most neighborhoods. Its handbook cites Government Code section 61601.10 and a vote of Cameron Park residents in the mid-1980s. The CSD’s two documents give different years for that vote, 1985 and 1986.

Three points matter for boards. First, the CSD’s committees are not an association. Its own handbook says the Architectural Review Committee is not an association under the Davis-Stirling Act. The CSD enforces what the recorded CC&Rs say. It does not maintain your common area, hold your reserves or run your elections.

Second, if your community has an association, read your documents and the CSD’s file for your subdivision side by side, and tell owners in plain words who to call for what. An owner who gets a notice from the CSD and a letter from the association about the same fence deserves a clear answer.

Third, without fines, the CSD’s process depends on persuasion and, at the end, on a lawsuit. If your association has its own enforcement authority and a fine schedule, some problems will move faster through your own process.

Where the CSD holds architectural control, its Architectural Review Committee (ARC) reviews exterior work. The ARC handbook says the committee’s approval does not replace a county building permit.

If your association has its own architectural committee, say so clearly on your website and in your welcome packet, and explain whether an owner needs one approval or two. New owners in Cameron Park often do not know which office to apply to.

The CSD has its own Weed and Rubbish Abatement Ordinance, No. 2025.05.21, which it says applies to every improved and unimproved parcel in the district. We could not read the ordinance itself, which is posted as a scanned image. The standards below are the ones the CSD restated in its 2026 request for abatement contractors.

For a board, the lesson is to treat any undeveloped parcel the association owns the way the CSD treats a vacant lot. Put it on the landscaper’s spring schedule, and remind owners of unbuilt lots in March. The CSD’s Wildfire Mitigation Coordinator is at (530) 929-0044.

The county’s defensible space rules are in County Code Chapter 8.09. The current version, Ordinance 5186, was adopted July 16, 2024 and took effect August 16, 2024. It applies all year to every property in the unincorporated county. We read the county’s summary and web page for this chapter, not the ordinance text itself.

As we read the county’s summary, the good neighbor rule applies to open space an association owns behind a row of homes, so the association may have to clear within 100 feet of an owner’s house. If your association owns its streets, the road clearance is yours to maintain too. We do not state a fire hazard zone for any neighborhood. Look up your own parcel on the State Fire Marshal’s map.

Fire protection here is a CSD service. The Cameron Park Fire Department operates under a contract between the CSD and CAL FIRE, which the CSD says has served the community since 1996.

Why does this matter to an association? Fire protection is one of the biggest jobs the CSD has, and the same district runs your parks, your street lights and your CC&R enforcement. A board that follows the CSD’s budget meetings will hear about changes to those services early.

The CSD runs 20 Landscaping and Lighting Assessment Districts, according to its engineer’s report for 2026-27. Each one covers a specific neighborhood and is collected on the county property tax bill.

Before your association budgets to maintain an entry, a median or a strip of lights, find out whether a district already covers it. Owners should not pay twice for the same ground, and a board should know what happens to that ground if a district runs short.

El Dorado County regulates short-term rentals in County Code Chapter 5.56, and the rules reach Cameron Park. The county says it is operating under the ordinance adopted November 21, 2024.

These rules are under review. On August 18, 2026 county staff presented changes for the West Slope that would remove the buffer around hosted rentals, drop the two-bedroom cap and raise the occupancy limit. No ordinance had been adopted when we checked. Look at the county’s Vacation Home Rentals page before you quote a number to an owner.

A county permit does not override CC&Rs. California Civil Code section 4741 limits rental bans in an association’s documents but does not stop an association from prohibiting rentals of 30 days or less.

Four smaller topics come up often enough that a board should know where each one stands.

Water. The El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) supplies water. EID has been at normal water supply conditions since April 24, 2023, and its water waste rule applies all year. Its 2024 master plan says recycled water reaches only part of Cameron Park. From January 1, 2029, state law bars the use of drinking water on nonfunctional turf in HOA common areas, meaning decorative grass that nobody uses. The law does not require removing the grass. Find out which of your meters are recycled and price the change now.

RVs, boats and trailers. There is no single Cameron Park rule. Each subdivision’s CC&Rs set it, and the CSD’s committee agendas show cases about RV storage, trailers and boats on the street in different neighborhoods. Read your own unit’s CC&Rs on the CSD’s site. On county roads, the Sheriff handles abandoned vehicles at (530) 621-6600 and says it does not enforce neighborhood CC&Rs.

The Airpark. Cameron Airpark is one of the few places in California where owners taxi a plane home. The Cameron Park Airport District says more than 100 homes and lots have hangars, that owners share the roads with aircraft and that access to the runway is controlled by gates. It says the neighborhood’s CC&Rs apply, with architectural control under the CSD, whose fee book has a line for hangars. Buyers should read the airport district’s rules as well as the CC&Rs.

Oak trees and ADUs. The county’s oak ordinance and ADU rules apply here as they do in the rest of the unincorporated county. Our El Dorado Hills HOA Guide covers both.