Palo Alto HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

Palo Alto is its own utility company. The city provides electric, natural gas, water, wastewater and fiber optic service, and the association’s common-area meters are city accounts. That changes who a board calls and where the rebates come from:

The city has an EV charger rebate program for multi-family properties, with staff who walk an applicant through the project and a separate incentive for transformer upgrade costs. When we checked, two city pages gave different maximum amounts, so we do not quote one. Approved projects must be installed within 18 months and funding is limited. Call Program Services before you sign with a contractor, and ask whether your association qualifies and what the current cap is.

Owners will bring the electrification question to your architectural committee too. The city’s Rebate Hub listed up to $3,500 for replacing a gas water heater with a heat pump water heater, up to $2,500 for replacing a gas furnace with a heat pump system and $2,500 for removing a gas meter when we checked. In attached housing those projects mean outdoor equipment, new circuits and sometimes a panel upgrade, so decide now where equipment can go and what an application must show.

On fiber, the city has been building Palo Alto Fiber in phases. Its project page does not say how multi-unit buildings or associations are connected, so write to fiber@paloalto.gov before you renew a bulk internet contract.

Palo Alto bans gas-powered leaf blowers in residential zones at all times. Municipal Code section 9.10.060(f) prohibits any leaf blower powered by an internal combustion engine, or by a generator that runs on one, in a residential zone. Electric and battery blowers are allowed, with limits:

• Residential zones: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. No leaf blowers on Sundays or holidays.
• Every blower must carry a label showing its model number and a rating of 65 decibels or less at 50 feet.
• Other powered garden equipment on residential property may run 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays and holidays.

The part boards miss is who is responsible. The section covers the operator, the employer, the property owner, the manager, the tenant and anyone who authorizes the work. The city’s page says citations may be issued to property owners. A report starts with a warning letter to the address, and a citation can follow if an officer confirms the violation. The city’s 2026 penalty schedule lists $250 for a first leaf blower violation, $500 for a second and $1,000 after that.

So if your landscape contractor uses a gas blower in the common area, the association is exposed. Write electric-only equipment and the city’s hours into the contract. The city also asks owners to make electric blowers or spare batteries available to their crews. Reports go through the Palo Alto 311 app or to Code Enforcement at (650) 329-2605.

Since January 1, 2018, Chapter 9.14 has banned smoking inside every unit of a multi-unit residence, which the code defines as a property with two or more units and which expressly includes condominium complexes. The rule covers tobacco, cannabis and electronic smoking devices, and it reaches further than many boards expect:

• A private balcony, porch, deck or patio counts as part of the unit, so smoking is banned there too.
• Smoking is banned in common areas, indoors and out, including halls, paths, courtyards, pools, laundry rooms, parking lots and garages.
• Smoking is banned outdoors within 25 feet of any door, window, opening or vent.
• Whoever has legal control of a common area may set up a designated smoking area, but only if it is unenclosed, clearly marked, signed, has a butt receptacle and sits at least 25 feet from children’s areas, recreation areas and any operable door, window or vent.

The code does not name homeowners associations, but it puts the sign duty on whoever controls the common area. Section 9.14.065 requires No Smoking signs in common areas where smoking is prohibited and says the people with legal control over those areas must maintain them. In most associations that is the board. The city offers free signs.

Two more points for owners. A seller of a unit in a multi-unit residence must give prospective buyers written notice of the ban. Owners who rent out a unit must put the no-smoking terms in the lease, and the code makes every occupant of the complex a third-party beneficiary of those terms, so a tenant can sue another tenant or an owner to enforce them. The city tells residents to report violations first to their landlord, property manager or condominium association. Expect those complaints to come to the board, and ask your attorney how your own rules should handle them.

Title 8 of the Municipal Code protects far more trees than most cities do. Trunk diameter is measured 54 inches above the ground, and a tree is protected if it is:

• One of six locally native species at 11.5 inches or more: bigleaf maple, California incense cedar, coast live oak, blue oak, California black oak or valley oak.
• A coast redwood at 18 inches or more.
• Any other tree at 15 inches or more, except species on the city’s invasive and high-water-use lists.
• A designated tree, meaning one included in a previously approved project or landscape plan, at any size.
• A street tree or other public tree, or a heritage tree designated by the City Council.

The fourth item is the one associations miss. Trees shown on the landscape plan the city approved with your development can be protected whatever their size or species, so do not assume a common-area tree is too small to matter.

The process is also different for attached communities. On a single-family lot, removal goes through a Tree Removal Permit from Urban Forestry. On a multi-unit property with no development under way, the city routes it through a staff-level Architectural Review at Planning and Development Services. Either way the application needs an arborist report that confirms an allowed reason, such as a tree that is dead, hazardous or damaging a foundation. Proposed removals are posted and can be appealed.

Pruning has a notice step. Before maintenance work on a protected tree, the owner must notify Urban Forestry and the public at least seven days ahead on the city’s form. Removing dead, diseased or broken branches is exempt. The city’s 2026 penalty schedule lists unauthorized removal of a protected tree at $5,000 per tree or more. Questions go to Urban Forestry at trees@paloalto.gov or (650) 496-5953.

Palo Alto has an unusually large stock of mid-century Eichler homes, and many of those tracts were sold with recorded CC&Rs. The City Council approved the Palo Alto Eichler Neighborhood Design Guidelines on April 2, 2018. The guidelines say a few things every board or committee in an Eichler tract should know:

• The CC&Rs were created by Eichler Homes and travel with the title to each house.
• The city’s Planning Department does not enforce them. Residents of the tract may.
• A few neighborhoods, such as Greenmeadow, Edgewood and Charleston Meadows, have Architectural Control Committees that rule on plans in writing within 30 days under their tract’s CC&Rs.
• The guidelines are meant to support and expand on the tract CC&Rs, and the city expected active committees to use the two together.

The city described the guidelines as voluntary when they went to Council, binding only if zoning is changed to require them. Ask Planning at (650) 329-2441 how they are applied to a project today. The guidelines also record that eleven Eichler tracts overlap with a single-story overlay zoning district, which is a city rule the committee cannot waive, and that Greenmeadow and Green Gables have been listed National Register historic districts since 2005.

The practical point is that two reviews run side by side. A city permit does not satisfy the CC&Rs, and committee approval does not replace a city permit. Tell applicants that in writing, and decide requests within the time your documents allow.

We found no short-term rental permit program on the City of Palo Alto’s website when we checked. One rule is clear: the city’s 2025 ADU guidebook says any ADU or junior ADU must be rented for a term of 30 days or more. For anything else, ask Code Enforcement at (650) 329-2605 how the city treats a specific listing.

For a board, your own documents are the stronger 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.

The city’s ADU rules are in Chapter 18.09 of the zoning code. Its 2025 guidebook gives these limits: ADUs up to 1,000 square feet, junior ADUs of 500 square feet or less, and a detached ADU of 800 square feet, or 900 with one bedroom and 1,000 with two or more under the city’s own standards. Detached units are limited to 16 feet in height, or 18 feet within half a mile of transit, with 4-foot side and rear setbacks. No parking is required for a new unit, and a junior ADU requires the owner to live on the property.

A single-family lot may have up to two ADUs and one junior ADU. On a multi-family lot the guidebook allows ADUs numbering up to 25% of the existing homes, and up to eight detached ADUs, not more than the number of existing homes. 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 provisions in CC&Rs 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.

Two city parking systems affect communities whose residents or guests park on public streets:

If your building is inside a permit district, permits are sold per dwelling unit to residents who can show proof of residency at that address. Tell new owners and tenants which district applies, because guests without a permit are limited to two hours on signed streets. Parking program staff are at (650) 329-2520.

All of this is written for public streets. The city’s abandoned vehicle page does not cover private property. If your association owns its streets or garage, parking is governed mainly by your own rules and by state towing law. Confirm with Palo Alto Police what the city will and will not enforce on your property.

The city’s water use regulations, section 12.32.010, apply all the time and not only in a drought:

• No watering of decorative turf or ornamental landscape with drinking water in the middle of the day. Watering may resume after 6 p.m. Hand watering with a bucket or a hose with a shut-off valve is exempt.
• No runoff into gutters, driveways, sidewalks or streets.
• Hoses used to wash vehicles or hard surfaces must have an automatic shut-off valve.
• Leaking or broken plumbing, sprinklers and irrigation must be repaired.
• Fountains and decorative water features must recirculate.

On the morning cut-off, the code and the Utilities web page gave different times when we checked, so we do not quote one. Ask Utilities which hour applies and give the answer to your landscape contractor in writing. Water waste can be reported at (650) 496-6968, and the 2026 penalty schedule lists a water use violation at $100.

Two points matter for the budget. First, Palo Alto does not run its own lawn rebate. The city partners with Valley Water and sends customers to Valley Water’s programs. 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. The city also offers free irrigation tracking tools and points commercial customers to Valley Water’s free landscape surveys.

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. Trees are a separate matter: the city’s irrigation limit does not apply to them, and a protected tree still needs water.

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

The city says every property in Palo Alto has some flood risk, and it describes two main sources. Extreme bay tides overtopping the bayfront levees create the largest Special Flood Hazard Area, an AE zone running from roughly Middlefield Road to the bay. Overflow from San Francisquito Creek creates a second large zone around Middlefield Road and toward the Embarcadero and Bayshore interchange. Smaller zones lie west of the Caltrain tracks between Page Mill and Charleston roads.

Three consequences for a board with buildings in those zones:

• Insurance. The city says federal rules require flood insurance for loans on buildings in a Special Flood Hazard Area, and lenders will ask for it. Palo Alto has been a Class 6 community in FEMA’s Community Rating System since 2017, which can earn a premium discount, but the city says it is not applied automatically. Tell your insurer.
• Major repairs. Work that costs more than 50% of the current market value of the structure is a substantial improvement, and the building must then meet current flood rules. The same test applies to the full cost of restoring a damaged building.
• Basements. In AE and AH zones the lowest floor must be at or above the base flood elevation plus one foot, which the city says effectively prohibits basements. Enclosed parking or storage below flood level cannot be below grade and needs flood openings.

Outside the flood zones, basement construction brings a different rule. Groundwater pumping during construction needs a Dewatering Permit, is normally limited to April 1 through October 31 and to 12 weeks, and comes with monitoring and reporting duties. If your architectural committee receives a basement application, ask to see the city permit conditions before work starts. Public Works Engineering answers flood zone questions at (650) 329-2151.

Section 9.10.060 sets the same construction hours for residential and non-residential property. Work may run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Construction is prohibited on Sundays and holidays, and the city’s handout says the hours include all deliveries. No single piece of equipment may exceed 110 decibels measured at 25 feet.

A construction hours sign must be posted where it can be seen from the street. The handout calls a violation a misdemeanor and says the Police Department enforces the noise ordinance, at (650) 329-2413. Put the hours in your construction and remodel rules and in vendor contracts. Your own rules can set shorter hours, which many attached communities do.

GreenWaste of Palo Alto collects garbage, recycling and compost. Its multi-family service covers complexes of three or more homes that share carts or bins, and all service requests go through the property manager or owner. The city’s Recycling and Composting Ordinance puts four duties on the owner or manager of a multifamily property:

• Subscribe to recycling, compost and garbage service.
• Set up color-coded, labeled containers in convenient places, including common areas such as lobbies.
• Train and educate residents, tenants, employees, contractors and janitors.
• Make sure waste is sorted into the right containers. The city says enforcement is based on contamination and that fees and fines may apply.

There is help. The city and GreenWaste offer free posters, labels, kitchen buckets, site audits and trainings. GreenWaste also lets a property with 10 to 100 homes order a 20-cubic-yard debris box twice a year for bulky items, and larger properties up to two 40-yard boxes. Call GreenWaste at (650) 493-4894 for service and Zero Waste Palo Alto at (650) 496-5910 for the rules.

Chapter 9.68 of the Municipal Code applies to owners who rent out their homes. It binds the owner as landlord, not the association, but a board that deals with tenants should know what it says:

• Just cause (section 9.68.040): once a renter has lived in the home for six months, the owner needs just cause to end the tenancy. The city says its protections cover more renters than state law and are permanent.
• Relocation help (section 9.68.050): for a no-fault ending on a property with fewer than ten rental units, the owner waives the last month’s rent or pays one month’s rent. Larger properties owe set amounts that the city updates each July.
• Security deposits (section 9.68.070): no more than one and a half months’ rent for an unfurnished home.
• One-year leases (section 9.68.030): landlords must offer a written one-year lease, but this section exempts condominiums, planned developments, stock cooperatives and single-family dwellings.

The just cause section has its own exemptions. One covers a home that can be sold separately, such as a condominium, when the owner is not a corporation, a real estate investment trust or an LLC with a corporate member and has given the renter the required written notice. Many rented condos will be exempt and some will not. If the association is pressing an owner to remove a tenant over rule violations, the owner’s attorney will need to work within this chapter.

The city also has a rental registry (Chapter 9.65) that requires landlords to register each year and to report rent increases and eviction notices within ten days. In June 2026 the Council deferred extending it to properties with two or fewer units. Owners should ask the city whether their unit has to register.

One more resource is useful to boards directly. The Palo Alto Mediation Program is free to anyone who lives, works or owns property in the city, and it takes neighbor disputes as well as landlord and tenant ones. Call (650) 856-4062.