San Diego HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

San Diego regulates short-term rentals through its Short-Term Residential Occupancy (STRO) program. Whole-home use needs a two-night minimum. The city page describes four license tiers:

Application and license fees are $33 and $193 for Tier 1, $33 and $284 for Tier 2, and $41 and $1,129 for Tiers 3 and 4. Fees are not refundable, and a license lasts two years. Each host may hold one license for one dwelling unit and must be a natural person, not an LLC. The host needs a Transient Occupancy Tax certificate and a Rental Unit Business Tax certificate. Accessory dwelling units generally cannot be used. Tier 3 and 4 homes must operate at least 90 days a year and file quarterly reports, and every license needs a posted notice and the city’s Good Neighbor Policy.

Questions about licenses go to STRO Administration at (619) 615-6120. Complaints go to the STRO enforcement line at (619) 533-6489, which uses a separate form from general code enforcement. A city license does not override your CC&Rs, so check your own documents before an owner applies.

The city’s parking rules factsheet for that ordinance is undated, so ask the parking line at (866) 470-1308 for the current rules before you cite them to an owner. For noise or illegal parking, call SDPD at (619) 531-2000. For abandoned vehicles, call the SDPD Abandoned Vehicle Unit at (858) 495-7856.

These are rules for public streets. On your own private streets and lots, your parking rules and state towing law do the work.

Planting a street tree needs a permit from the Street Division, with no fee. The city says it trims, removes and prunes roots of street trees only as funding allows, so an association should not count on the city for that work.

Under Council Policy 900-19, protection of trees on private property is voluntary. An owner can designate a tree as Landmark, Heritage, Parkway Resource or Preservation Grove, and the designation can be recorded as a deed restriction. If your board plans major tree work on a slope or along a street, call Development Services at (619) 446-5000 first to ask whether a permit applies.

City of San Diego Public Utilities supplies water to city customers. The permanent water waste rules are in Municipal Code section 67.3803:

• No landscape irrigation from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• No irrigation during rain or within 48 hours after measurable rain (1/8 inch).
• No runoff onto neighbors, walkways, roads or structures.
• Leaks must be fixed within 72 hours of notice.
• No drinking-water irrigation of non-functional turf at commercial, industrial or institutional properties.

The text we read sets no watering days of the week. The City Council can also declare Water Shortage Levels 1 to 6 under section 67.3805, with detailed actions in the city’s Water Shortage Contingency Plan. The turf rule does not mention homeowners associations, so ask Public Utilities at (619) 515-3525 how it applies to your common areas. Report irrigation runoff at (619) 235-1000 or through the Get It Done app.

On rebates, the city’s page says its rain barrel, cistern and gutter rebates are temporarily paused. Its Landscape Transformation Program pays $100 per tree, up to five trees. For turf, the page and the San Diego County Water Authority’s flyer (updated April 2026) list a commercial rebate, which includes HOAs, of $2.00 per square foot for up to 50,000 square feet. The flyer’s main conditions:

• Living grass only. Artificial turf does not qualify.
• Three plants per 100 square feet, with trees in 15-gallon containers or larger.
• A rainwater capture feature and mulch are required.
• The project must be finished within 180 days.

The city’s page words the square-foot limit oddly, so confirm the current terms with the program before you bid the work.

San Diego identifies Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones within the city, and the State Fire Marshal released a 2025 map for Local Responsibility Areas. The city has an interactive map and grid PDFs. Look up each common-area address, since the zones differ by property.

Distances: confirm with the City. The city’s Municipal Code (section 142.0412) and the Fire-Rescue Department’s defensible-space guide describe the zones with different widths. We are not giving a distance here because we could not tell which one governs an association’s slope. Before you set a contract scope, call Fire-Rescue Community Risk Reduction at (619) 533-4388 and get the answer for your property in writing. Neither page mentions HOAs or common areas.

What the sources do say:

• Under the municipal code, the owner of the land with native or naturalized vegetation does the brush management, even if a neighbor owns the structure. Maintenance is described as regular, with no fixed annual date.
• The code bars brush management in coastal sage scrub, maritime succulent scrub and coastal sage-chaparral from March 1 to August 15, unless the City Manager documents an exception.
• Fire-Rescue says bird breeding season runs February 15 to August 15 and may require a biological survey before work near open space. It lists August 16 to January 31 as the window for clearing in sensitive habitat.
• Zone 0, the area right next to a structure, means no dead plants, mulch or firewood, and hardscape instead. It is required for new structures in a Very High zone built after February 28, 2026, and existing owners are urged to comply by February 2027 (AB 3074).
• Fire-Rescue offers defensible-space inspections and a Home Risk Assessment for $163. Brush and weed complaints go to (619) 533-4444.

A maintenance assessment district (MAD) pays for special benefits above the city’s baseline services, such as landscaping, street maintenance, lighting, litter removal, open space, security and economic development. The legal basis is the Landscape and Lighting Act of 1972, Proposition 218 (Article XIII D of the California Constitution), the city’s MAD Ordinance and Council Policy 100-21. Each district has an Engineer’s Report updated every year, and budgets are presented at noticed meetings.

The city’s FY27 Parks and Recreation list has 54 districts. Ones near our neighborhood guides include Carmel Mountain Ranch, Carmel Valley, Carmel Valley Neighborhood 10, Black Mountain Ranch North and South, Pacific Highlands Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Encantada-Stonebridge Estates, Sabre Springs, Torrey Highlands, Torrey Hills, Penasquitos East, Mira Mesa and Miramar Ranch North.

Mello-Roos community facilities districts are separate. The Finance Department’s list has CFD 1 (Miramar Ranch North), CFD 2 (Santaluz, Improvement Areas 1, 3 and 4), CFD 3 (Liberty Station) and CFD 4 (Black Mountain Ranch Villages). Debt Management can answer questions at (619) 235-5840.

A board answering an owner’s question about one of these charges should send the owner to the city’s district report rather than estimating the amount.

For noise complaints, call the SDPD non-emergency line at (619) 531-2000. Write these hours into your landscape and construction contracts so vendors know them before they arrive.

Building and Land Use Enforcement does not accept anonymous complaints. The city page says some lower-priority requests were closed in FY2026-27 because of budget reductions, and it asks people to contact the responsible party first. For neighbor mediation, the city points to the Neighborhood Conflict Resolution Center at (619) 238-2400. Code complaints go to (619) 236-5500.

Community planning groups, such as those for Carmel Valley and Rancho Bernardo, review projects in their areas. The city posts their agendas on its planning pages. If a nearby project could affect your community, check the agenda for your area.