Oak Park HOA Guide: County Rules for Boards and Owners

The county calls short-term rentals “temporary rental units.” Its rules for areas outside the coastal zone took effect July 19, 2018. There are two kinds:

• Short-term rental: a home, or part of one, rented for less than 30 days in a row while the owner is not there.
• Homeshare: the owner’s primary residence, rented for less than 30 days while the owner stays there. The owner needs at least a 20% ownership share.
• Only owners can apply. An owner may hold one permit, only one unit on a property qualifies and accessory dwelling units cannot be used.
• A short-term rental allows two guests per bedroom for up to five bedrooms, plus two more, with a cap of ten overnight guests. A homeshare can rent up to two bedrooms to no more than five guests.
• Quiet hours run 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., with no outdoor amplified sound. The owner or manager must be within 40 miles and must reach the renter within 30 minutes of a complaint, or 15 minutes during quiet hours.

The application fee is $1,525, plus a compliance deposit of $500 for a short-term rental or $100 for a homeshare. A pre-permit inspection checks bedrooms, parking and safety, and permits last up to one year. Operators also need a business tax certificate, transient occupancy tax registration where it applies and commercial liability insurance of at least $500,000 per occurrence. The county can impose penalties of up to $1,000 a day.

The county’s rental pages and owner affidavit do not mention HOAs, and we found no HOA-consent requirement. Whether your CC&Rs allow short-term rentals is a separate question, so read your governing documents. Report a suspected unpermitted rental to Code Compliance at (805) 654-3506.

County Ordinance No. 4358 limits oversized vehicles in Oak Park. The ordinance itself would not open for us, so we cannot give its size limits, hours or the streets it covers. The county’s permit application and the advisory council’s guidelines do tell us how exemptions work:

One detail matters for boards. The work vehicle exemption covers only vehicles “not otherwise restricted by local property or homeowners association restrictions.” A county permit does not override your CC&Rs.

The California Highway Patrol’s Moorpark Area office lists Oak Park among the unincorporated areas it covers. Call it at (805) 553-0800 for traffic questions on public roads. We could not confirm a county 72-hour rule or whether anyone enforces parking on private HOA streets, so ask before you plan around either one.

The county’s Tree Protection Ordinance protects oaks, sycamores and some other trees. Outside the coastal zone, the county’s tree FAQ says:

• Oaks and sycamores are protected at 9.5 inches around the trunk, measured about 4.5 feet above the ground. Multi-trunk oaks are protected at 6.25 inches. That is circumference, not diameter, so even young trees count.
• Heritage trees of any species are protected at 90 inches around (72 inches for multi-trunk trees), and historical trees at any size.
• The protected zone runs to the dripline plus 5 feet, or 15 feet from the trunk, whichever is greater. Building, trenching, paving or driving there needs approval first.
• Emergency work, minor pruning and dead tree removal need an authorization letter, which is free. Removing a hazardous tree, or a protected tree for brush clearance, needs a ministerial permit. Heritage trees, or four or more oaks or sycamores, need a discretionary permit.
• Pruning for required brush clearance needs no permit. Major pruning is allowed only when an arborist says it helps the tree, and never to improve views.

Permit fees are set by the county, so ask the Planning Division for the current amounts. The FAQ says unpermitted removal can mean after-the-fact permits at double the fee, and it does not mention HOAs. Before your landscaper touches an oak, call the Planning Division at (805) 654-2488.

Drinking water in Oak Park comes from the Triunfo Water & Sanitation District, which serves more than 14,000 people there and also handles Oak Park’s sewer service. Triunfo says it buys all of its water from northern California through the State Water Project. It also supplies recycled water for irrigating parks, schools and homeowner association landscapes, so ask whether your common areas can use it.

A 2023 state law, AB 1572, bars using drinking water on nonfunctional turf. The State Water Board says HOA common areas are covered and must stop by January 1, 2029. Owners with more than 5,000 square feet of irrigated area must certify compliance by June 30, 2031 and every three years after that until 2040. The law does not stop you from watering trees, and the homes themselves inside an HOA are not covered.

Triunfo’s 2026 rebate flyer, offered with the Metropolitan Water District and the Calleguas Municipal Water District, lists:

The flyer gives no amounts and points readers to SoCal WaterSmart’s residential rebates. SoCal WaterSmart also lists a commercial turf replacement program, but we could not confirm its terms or whether your association qualifies. Triunfo posted watering limits in 2022, and we could not confirm whether they still apply. Call Triunfo at (800) 613-0901 before you plan a common-area conversion.

The Ventura County Fire Department runs the county’s Fire Hazard Reduction Program. In a June 2025 talk to the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council, the department described defensible space in three zones within 100 feet of a building:

The county’s tree FAQ adds that the fire department requires 10 feet of clearance above roofs, 10 feet from chimneys and 13.5 feet of vertical clearance along fire access roads.

Each year the program mails a “Notice to Abate Fire Hazard” to owners of parcels in it. The department says:

• Dates. Notices are mailed April 20, and the work is due June 1. Long-term extensions are not granted. If work has started and you need a few more days, call the fire station number on the notice.
• Distances. The usual requirement is 100 feet of vegetation clearance around structures and 10 feet along road access. Ornamental landscaping counts too, so keep it irrigated and free of dead material.
• HOA areas. Parcels with a fuel modification zone, such as open space or HOA landscape areas, are among those in the program. Each owner clears only within their own property lines, even when the building that sets the 100 feet is next door.
• Inspections. Local stations usually start in the last week of May, and approvals are posted online each morning. Keep property clear all year, since regrowth can bring a second notice.
• If it is not done. There is no charge when the work is finished on time. If it is not, the department’s contractor may do it, and the cost plus an administrative fee becomes a special assessment lien on the property.
• New construction. Since March 1, 2025, new buildings and additions need a full five-foot noncombustible “Zone 0.”

If your association does the clearing, the notice still goes to each owner, because state law requires the department to mail it to the property owner. The department says that if the HOA finishes the work by the deadline, the owner does not need to do anything more. A short note to owners before April 20 can head off confused calls.

To check whether a parcel is in a mapped fire hazard severity zone, use the 2025 state and local map viewer linked from the department’s program page. Five Fire Safe Councils in the county offer free home wildfire and hardening assessments in wildfire-prone areas, and the department is starting Firewise USA communities. Questions go to the program at (805) 389-9759 or fhrp@venturacounty.gov.

Instead of a city landscape district, Oak Park has County Service Area No. 4. The county’s map labels it Oak Park and puts it at 2,844.61 acres. Reports to the advisory council say:

• County Public Works contracts the landscaping. The work the reports describe includes the Kanan Road center median and its irrigation, plantings along Hawthorne Drive and the “Welcome to Oak Park” monument sign.
• The Board of Supervisors approves the service area’s budget each June. A May 2025 report cites a $510,000 landscape allocation for 2025-26.
• The same report says some plants died back after years of reduced watering to stay within budget.

The pages we could open do not say how the service area is funded, whether it shows up on the property tax bill or exactly which areas it maintains. We also did not find a list of Mello-Roos or other special districts for Oak Park. Check your property tax bill and your CC&Rs to see which slopes and parkways are yours and which are the county’s.