Campbell HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

Campbell’s tree rules are stricter for an association than for a single house. The city’s tree removal permit checklist, which applies Chapter 21.32 of the zoning code, protects different trees depending on the property:

• Single-family residential property: oak, redwood, cedar and ash trees 12 inches or more in diameter, measured four feet above the ground. That is about 38 inches around the trunk.
• All other property, which the city’s planning page says includes apartments, townhomes and commercial centers: any tree 12 inches or more in diameter.
• Every property: trees shown on an approved landscaping plan, trees the city required to be planted or kept as a condition of approval and trees designated as Heritage Trees by the Historic Preservation Board.
• Not protected at any size: fruit trees and eucalyptus.

For a board the first and third items do most of the work. A mature common-area tree of nearly any species is protected by its size, and a smaller tree can be protected because it appears on the landscape plan the city approved with your development. Do not assume a tree is too small to need a permit.

Permits are hard to get. The checklist says removal is granted only in very limited circumstances, and the Community Development Director must be able to make at least one finding: the tree is diseased or in danger of falling, it is damaging the main structure, it interferes with utilities, it is crowding other protected trees or keeping it would cause an unusual economic hardship. Each tree removed must be replaced, generally within 30 days of the permit:

If the site cannot reasonably take the replacement, the director may accept a fee instead. Pruning matters as well. The city’s tree permit notices state that severe trimming is prohibited by the municipal code and is subject to a replacement penalty and payment for the value of each tree. The same notices refer to an emergency removal procedure in section 21.32.060 and give neighbors 10 calendar days to appeal a decision. Tell your tree service all of this in writing, and call Planning at (408) 866-2140 before any large tree is topped or removed.

Trees in the public right-of-way belong to a different office. Public Works says the city removes a street tree only if it is dead or diseased beyond saving. Other removal requests from the adjacent owner are rarely approved and need the approval of the Parks and Recreation Commission. If one is approved, the owner pays for the removal and for a 24-inch box replacement tree. The Maintenance Division takes street tree questions at (408) 866-2145.

Lifted sidewalks are a common budget surprise. The city says it no longer runs an annual sidewalk replacement program because of budget constraints. You can ask for an inspection, and if the spot qualifies the city will grind it down, ramp it or patch it with asphalt. The other route is to take out an encroachment permit from Engineering and hire your own contractor. Any work in the public right-of-way needs that permit.

Streets inside many planned communities are private, and then none of this applies: the association maintains its own trees, paving and walks. Check your recorded map if you are not sure which you have.

Campbell has no short-term rental permit program that we could find on the city’s website. What the city does publish points the other way. Its Accessory Dwelling Unit Bulletin, dated March 5, 2025, says leases of less than 30 days, including short-term rentals, are prohibited in ADUs, and it cites the residential land use table in zoning code section 21.08.030 as the source.

Before the board quotes the city code in a violation letter, confirm the current rule for homes other than ADUs with Planning at (408) 866-2140. Zoning complaints go to Code Enforcement, which works on a complaint basis.

Your own documents are the surer tool. California Civil Code section 4741 limits how far an association can restrict rentals generally, but it does not stop an association from prohibiting rentals of 30 days or less. A clear rule in your CC&Rs lets the board act without waiting on the city.

The city’s ADU Bulletin of March 5, 2025 summarizes the local standards. A detached ADU may be up to 1,200 square feet and 20 feet tall, with 4-foot side and rear setbacks. An attached ADU is capped at half the floor area of the main home, though 1,000 square feet is always allowed. A junior ADU may be up to 500 square feet, and the owner must live in either the junior ADU or the main home under a recorded deed restriction. No ADU may be leased for less than 30 days.

The bulletin also covers multifamily lots: up to eight new detached ADUs, not more than the number of existing homes, each no larger than 800 square feet, plus conversions of non-living space up to 25% of the existing units. Detached carports and garages cannot be converted. In a condominium the land and the building shell are usually common area, so nothing of the kind happens without the association.

For boards, the state rule matters more than the city one. Civil Code section 4751 voids CC&R provisions that prohibit or unreasonably restrict an ADU or junior ADU on a lot zoned for single-family use. An association can still apply reasonable restrictions through its architectural review process.

The Campbell Police Department handles parking on public streets and publishes the rules it enforces:

We found no separate city time limit for RVs, boats or trailers on the Police Department’s pages, so plan on the 72-hour rule applying to them like any other vehicle. Police also say they generally cannot make an owner park somewhere else if the vehicle is legally parked on a public street.

The 72-hour rule is written for public streets. If your association owns its streets, parking is governed mainly by your own rules and by state towing law. The city’s page notes that a vehicle may be kept on private property only with the owner’s permission (section 10.24.055) and points to Vehicle Code section 22658 for removals. That statute has its own sign and notice steps, so set up your towing program carefully. Report stored vehicles on public streets at (408) 866-2712.

Campbell does not run a water utility. The city says residential and commercial water service is provided by San Jose Water, an investor-owned company, with Valley Water as the wholesale supplier. That changes where watering rules come from. They are set in San Jose Water’s tariff on file with the California Public Utilities Commission, not in a city ordinance.

The tariff, Schedule 14.1, is a staged water shortage plan. Stage 1 limits sprinklers to 15 minutes per station per day and bars watering between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m., with exceptions for drip systems, low-precipitation sprinklers and hand watering. It also bars runoff, watering during or within 48 hours after measurable rain and hosing down pavement without a shut-off nozzle. Higher stages assign watering days by address:

Which stage applies changes with conditions. Ask San Jose Water at (408) 279-7900 which stage is in effect and how it treats a common-area meter with no street address, and give the answer to your landscape contractor in writing.

Two points matter for the budget. First, Valley Water’s Landscape Rebate Program pays a base rate of $2 per square foot to convert high-water-use lawn, and $1 per square foot for its lawn-to-mulch option on commercial, institutional and multifamily properties of five or more units. The cap for commercial sites and multifamily sites of five or more units is $100,000, against $3,000 for a single home, and Valley Water says funding lasts until June 30, 2027 or until it runs out. You must apply, pass a pre-inspection and receive a written Notice to Proceed before any work starts. Ask Valley Water which category your common-area account falls in. Second, 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 the rebates 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.

Campbell shares its weed abatement program with the Santa Clara County Department of Agriculture and Environmental Management. County staff inspect parcels each year at the start of fire season. The county’s schedule gives Campbell an inspection deadline of March 1, the earliest date on its list and a full month ahead of several neighboring cities.

The city’s page explains how the charges work. A property that fails the first inspection is charged an inspection fee even if the owner then clears the weeds, and the county lists that fee at $296 for 2026. If the owner does not do the work, the county’s contractor does it, and the owner pays the contractor’s charges plus a county administrative fee. All of it goes on the property tax bill. Properties that meet and keep to the county’s Minimum Fire Safety Standards are not charged, and a parcel leaves the program after three consecutive years of compliance.

Associations that own a vacant lot, a creek-side strip or an unbuilt phase should have it cut in February, not April. Overgrown vegetation and weeds on a developed lot are a separate matter and go to city Code Enforcement as a property maintenance complaint.

Campbell’s construction hours are shorter than most of its neighbors’. The city’s demolition guide states that the municipal code limits activity to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, with no construction on Sundays or federally recognized holidays. A reroof, a repaving job or a balcony repair project all have to fit inside those hours.

The same guide says loud, disruptive noise over 50 decibels on a job site is prohibited, and gives air compressors without mufflers, continuously running motors or generators and loud radios as examples. Violations can bring a citation or a stop-work order, which is an expensive way to lose a day on a common-area project.

The city lists noise among the zoning matters Code Enforcement handles. Ask Code Enforcement at (408) 866-2760 for the current landscape equipment hours before you sign a landscape contract. Put the city’s hours in every construction and landscape contract. Your own rules can set shorter ones.

West Valley Collection and Recycling holds an exclusive franchise for garbage, recycling and organics collection in Campbell, for homes and businesses alike. The franchise is overseen by the West Valley Solid Waste Management Authority, a joint powers authority of Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga and Monte Sereno. Three points come up for boards:

• Debris boxes. The city says the franchise covers dumpsters, so order them from the hauler at (408) 283-9250. If a contractor hauls its own construction debris, the city asks that the hauler come from its approved list and that mixed debris go to a designated facility.
• Bins left out. Code Enforcement lists garbage and recycling containers stored in public view more than 24 hours before or after collection as a violation. That gives your own bin rule some backing.
• Bulky items. Under the on-call cleanup program that replaced the annual cleanup on March 1, 2024, multifamily residents may schedule one pickup per unit per year and single-family residents up to three. Each covers up to three cubic yards of bagged or boxed material plus three large items.

The bulky item pickup is worth advertising to residents. It is the cheapest answer to mattresses and furniture left beside the enclosure, and residents book it directly with the hauler before their collection day.

Stormwater pollution prevention for Campbell, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga is run by the West Valley Stormwater Authority. Its basic rule is that only rain goes down the storm drain. For an association the place this bites is the pool. The city and the authority both say pool and spa water must be drained to a sanitary sewer cleanout or onto landscaping or open ground, never to the street or a storm drain, and the authority asks you to contact the sanitation district before discharging to the sewer. Make that a written term in your pool service contract.

The city says new development must provide stormwater treatment consistent with Low Impact Development requirements. If your community was built with planted basins, swales or permeable paving, look in your approval documents and CC&Rs for a maintenance obligation before anyone fills them in or paves them over. Report spills and dumping near drains or creeks to the authority at (408) 354-5385.

Sewers belong to the West Valley Sanitation District. The city says the district maintains the line from the cleanout to the street, which leaves everything on the property side of the cleanout to the owner or the association. Find out which of your lines are private, and reserve for them.

The city’s pages we read do not describe Campbell’s flood zones, so we do not describe them here. Valley Water offers an address lookup for FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas, and its Community Projects Review staff at (408) 630-2650 will help read a flood map. It also gives out free filled sandbags to county residents and takes reports of debris blocking a creek at (408) 630-2378.

Campbell has a smoking ordinance. The city lists smoking ordinance enforcement among the complaints Code Enforcement takes. No city page we were able to open sets out how far it reaches into housing, so we do not describe that here: whether it covers the inside of an attached home, a private balcony or an association’s outdoor common areas.

Several nearby cities ban smoking inside condominiums and townhomes outright. Do not assume Campbell’s rule is the same, and do not tell owners it is. Ask Code Enforcement at (408) 866-2760 what the ordinance requires of a multifamily property before you post signs that cite the city.

The board is not stuck while it waits for an answer. An association can generally adopt its own rule on smoking in common areas, and can regulate smoking in units through its governing documents. How far to go, and whether an owner vote is needed, is a question for your attorney.

Campbell’s renter pages point first to state law. The city tells tenants that the statewide rent cap and just cause law (AB 1482) applies here, limiting yearly increases on covered homes to 5% plus the change in the consumer price index, or 10%, whichever is lower. Whether a particular rented condominium or house is covered depends on its age, its owner and the notice the tenant was given, so that is a question for the owner and the owner’s attorney.

The city also has the Campbell Rent Mediation Program, run for it by Project Sentinel, a nonprofit housing agency. A tenant first tries to resolve a dispute with the owner or manager, and if that fails can file a petition. A petition over a rent increase must be filed within 15 days of the date the increase takes effect. The program also takes disputes over reduced services. Project Sentinel answers at (408) 243-8565.

These rules bind the owner as landlord, not the association. They matter to a board in two ways. An owner the board is pressing to remove a tenant over rule violations has to work within the just cause rules. And when a tenant complains to the board about rent or repairs, the useful answer is the mediation program’s number.