It is illegal to do major repairs on your car in your garage in Sacramento County

I think the speeding analogy in the context that irish intended it makes sense.

If I were to try and expand it to the overall situation a little better:

• Speed limit is 25
• Many many many people drive 25
• Some people do 30 or 35
• OP does 40, has open pipes on his cars, accelerates quickly, and drives agressively and basically attracts a lot of attention as he violates the law.
• People complain about OP
• OP complains about law

Still, I think there are some pretty berkeleying major points in this thread that are being overlooked, mainly this one.  If you are doing major repairs to your car, in your garage, and not painting, then you are doing nothing wrong.

10.52.030 Major vehicle repair.

A. It is unlawful and a public nuisance for any person to engage in major vehicle repair in a residential zone, unless all of the following conditions exist:

1. The repair is performed within a fully enclosed structure; and

2. The vehicle under repair is registered to a current occupant of the premises; and

3. No more than two vehicles are being repaired at one time on the same premises or by the same person.

B. Subsection A of this section notwithstanding, body painting, other than spot painting, is not permitted in a residential zone. (Prior code § 25.15.402)

the following section says that major repairs can be performed in a residential area if certain conditions are met:

ProDarwin said:

Still, I think there are some pretty berkeleying major points in this thread that are being overlooked, mainly this one.  If you are doing major repairs to your car, in your garage, and not painting, then you are doing nothing wrong.

 

10.52.030 Major vehicle repair.

A. It is unlawful and a public nuisance for any person to engage in major vehicle repair in a residential zone, unless all of the following conditions exist:

1. The repair is performed within a fully enclosed structure; and

2. The vehicle under repair is registered to a current occupant of the premises; and

3. No more than two vehicles are being repaired at one time on the same premises or by the same person.

B. Subsection A of this section notwithstanding, body painting, other than spot painting, is not permitted in a residential zone. (Prior code § 25.15.402)

the following section says that major repairs can be performed in a residential area if certain conditions are met:

Not correct.  That's the county ordinance.  If you're in agricultural, agricultural-residential, residential, interim agricultural holding, interim estate, or interim residential zoned land in that county, then you get the following restrictions added to that:

" It is unlawful for any person to engage in, or permit others to engage in, major repair or maintenance of vehicles "

Zoning code rides on top of county ordinances to put additional restrictions on use. 

wae said:

ProDarwin said:

Still, I think there are some pretty berkeleying major points in this thread that are being overlooked, mainly this one.  If you are doing major repairs to your car, in your garage, and not painting, then you are doing nothing wrong.

 

10.52.030 Major vehicle repair.

A. It is unlawful and a public nuisance for any person to engage in major vehicle repair in a residential zone, unless all of the following conditions exist:

1. The repair is performed within a fully enclosed structure; and

2. The vehicle under repair is registered to a current occupant of the premises; and

3. No more than two vehicles are being repaired at one time on the same premises or by the same person.

B. Subsection A of this section notwithstanding, body painting, other than spot painting, is not permitted in a residential zone. (Prior code § 25.15.402)

the following section says that major repairs can be performed in a residential area if certain conditions are met:

Not correct.  That's the county ordinance.  If you're in agricultural, agricultural-residential, residential, interim agricultural holding, interim estate, or interim residential zoned land in that county, then you get the following restrictions added to that:

" It is unlawful for any person to engage in, or permit others to engage in, major repair or maintenance of vehicles "

Zoning code rides on top of county ordinances to put additional restrictions on use. 

I'm sure that it would go over very well with the rural portion of Sacramento County that they are not allowed to maintain their own vehicles on their own property.

The "or permit others" part is interesting.  Does that mean it is illegal to let someone else do a repair on your property?  Or does it mean that you can be fined if you see someone doing a repair on their own property and you don't swat the tools out of their hands, presumably while making a sign of the cross as you demand that they back away?

This sounds like an incredibly bad attempt at keeping people from making their property look like E36 M3 and otherwise being a crappy neighbor.

(like my neighbor who thinks he’s got the next Farmtruck and is constantly on a Street Outlaws driveway  episode at 5am)

In reply to ProDarwin :

The speeding analogy doesn’t work because the base code that the O.P. isn’t reasonable, followed by a large chunk of the population, or enforced. It doesn’t prohibit major repairs after a certain hour. Or in public view. Or regulate the use of chemicals. If flat prohibits all “major” repairs. It isn’t like going 40 in a 25. It’s like Sac County put a law on the books to lower ALL speed limits in the county, freeways included, to 25. While most of the citizens continue to drive like normal, O.P. gets a ticket. He isn’t even caught by the authorities, he was anonymously reported. The evidence is his car “looks fast.” He is guilty until proven innocent, and he has to buy the opportunity to do so at more than the cost of the fine. 

If this were a speed limit issue- the county dropped the speed limit on a six lane freeway to 25mph- it would be thrown out of court. 

I get what what some of you are saying, the O.P. brought it upon himself because his property is messy. And I agree, we should have respect for our neighbors. We shouldn’t need codes to keep us from negatively affecting our neighbors. And it sounds like he made great efforts to clean things up and mitigate the effects of future work. There is lot of info that we don’t have- timeframes, what the O.P. was doing, what time of the day, etc.. But I don’t think writing overreaching codes and then letting neighbors weaponize them is the solution.

ebonyandivory said:

This sounds like an incredibly bad attempt at keeping people from making their property look like E36 M3 and otherwise being a crappy neighbor.

(like my neighbor who thinks he’s got the next Farmtruck and is constantly on a Street Outlaws driveway  episode at 5am)

But it does not address having a bunch of junk around at all.

I was thinking about this a little, and it occurred to me how much stuff I have done in the past that would be illegal now.

My buddy and I did the brakes, coolant, engine oil and transmission for one of his wife's friends.  It was a Suburban and we did it in the driveway.  She was a widow, probably saved her at least a few hundred bucks.  Illegal, did the work in her driveway

Helped him install new control arms on his Cutlass.  Illegal, I helped him at his house.

We have fixed his son's car a few times.  Illegal, we helped him at his house.

Helped my brother put a new rear end in his truck.  Illegal, helped him at his house.

I put new carpet in Mom's car.  Illegal, did it in her garage.

Suspension bushings on the Miata.  Did them myself, but did it at the folks' house for a number of reasons.  I don't have a vise, which is handy for this sort of job.  I also brought some fruit for mom to bake a pie, obviously the latter was the primary consideration.  Illegal, did the work at their house.

I need to replace the oxygen sensors on my car.  Since an oxygen sensor socket is not something people typically own, does that mean it would be illegal for me to change them myself?  It is okay to do spot painting.  If you do the fenders, hood, trunk and top of the car on different days, is that spot painting?  If I see someone with a flat tire on the side of the road, I pull over, fix the flat and put it back on the car, pretty sure that violates this law.  FLAPS has tools it loans out, you know, stuff that people typically don't have.  Seems like that would not be okay for them to do anymore.

I think the " tools not found in anormal residence" to be stupid

I'm probably carrying stuff in the rampage now that the average person doesn't have in his garage. Will I be destroyed if I drive it to Sacramento?

Antihero said:

. Will I be destroyed if I drive it to Sacramento?

Why would you voluntarily go to the armpit of CA?

"America has a system of laws that are poorly written and haphazardly enforced."

Frank Zappa

In reply to No Time :

My question too.

ShawnG said:

"America has a system of laws that are poorly written and haphazardly enforced."

Frank Zappa

Awesome 

2003 - 2004 I was a real estate agent in Maine. Some of my clients were obviously looking for a house to use as a 'grow house'; Gut the house and use it to grow marijuana. I bet a grow house is totally acceptable in Sac County. Imagine what would happen now if someone bought a house, gutted it and secretly worked on cars with a torque wrench and a timing light.

ShawnG said:

"America has a system of laws that are poorly written and haphazardly enforced."

Frank Zappa

The man was a true genius, imo he was the DaVinci of my generation.

mr2s2000elise said:

Antihero said:

. Will I be destroyed if I drive it to Sacramento?

Why would you voluntarily go to the armpit of CA?

To be fair I'm not planning on it lol

ShawnG said:

"America has a system of laws that are poorly written and haphazardly enforced."

Frank Zappa

Haphazard enforcement is all too real.

wae said:

Not correct.  That's the county ordinance.  If you're in agricultural, agricultural-residential, residential, interim agricultural holding, interim estate, or interim residential zoned land in that county, then you get the following restrictions added to that

 

I see.  My mistake.

Boost_Crazy said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

The speeding analogy doesn’t work because the base code that the O.P. isn’t reasonable, followed by a large chunk of the population, or enforced.

i would disagree.  I bet 99% of people do not perform major repairs in their garage.  They go to dealers, car mechanics, or trade their car in.  Gearheads and amateur mechanics are a tiny % of the population.

On top of that, I bet the *majority* of gearheads and amateur mechanics who do perform 'major repairs' do so in their own garage and don't attract tons of negative attention.

Again, I agree the code is poorly written.  I'd much rather see the code written around the things people don't like about home auto repair - many of which the OP seems to be guilty of.

This is about the law, not about my situation, some don't seem to accept facts, in any case,

Here is what the property looks like when code enforcement came and issued the violation and fine.    The video shows the property before there was a complaint,

after the complaint everything was moved out of view.   Now if you trespass onto the property and drive back to the barn and look back there where nobody can see,

you will see a mess.  The law says you can't have a mess in your fenced backyard?   Yes it does apparently, the Grumpies backyard is a mess too behind the fence,

which is barely standing up from rotten wood.   

Looks like the average rundown small town in Oklahoma. 

ProDarwin said:

 

wae said:

Not correct.  That's the county ordinance.  If you're in agricultural, agricultural-residential, residential, interim agricultural holding, interim estate, or interim residential zoned land in that county, then you get the following restrictions added to that

 

 

I see.  My mistake.

 

Boost_Crazy said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

The speeding analogy doesn’t work because the base code that the O.P. isn’t reasonable, followed by a large chunk of the population, or enforced.

i would disagree.  I bet 99% of people do not perform major repairs in their garage.  They go to dealers, car mechanics, or trade their car in.  Gearheads and amateur mechanics are a tiny % of the population.

It depends where you are. In semi-rural Sacramento, I'd guess that traditionally half the people work on their own stuff to some extent. That's part of the basic ethos of the area and reflects the fact that money doesn't grow on trees. 

Where I live (San Fran Bay Area) there's an ongoing conflict around gentrification, as historically poor and ethnic neighborhoods get changed to expensive housing for relatively affluent professionals. I see this ordinance as part of Sacramento's battle with the same sort of forces. More and more of the area around Sactown is typified by planned communities, hipster conversions and tony ranchettes. Increasingly the people who fill their yard with projects are getting pushed out. It's like the county government is becoming one big homeowners association where they don't want to see blue-collar America unless it's in the form of their air conditioner repairman or gardener.

Kreb said:

ProDarwin said:

 

wae said:

Not correct.  That's the county ordinance.  If you're in agricultural, agricultural-residential, residential, interim agricultural holding, interim estate, or interim residential zoned land in that county, then you get the following restrictions added to that

 

 

I see.  My mistake.

 

Boost_Crazy said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

The speeding analogy doesn’t work because the base code that the O.P. isn’t reasonable, followed by a large chunk of the population, or enforced.

i would disagree.  I bet 99% of people do not perform major repairs in their garage.  They go to dealers, car mechanics, or trade their car in.  Gearheads and amateur mechanics are a tiny % of the population.

It depends where you are. In semi-rural Sacramento, I'd guess that traditionally half the people work on their own stuff to some extent. That's part of the basic ethos of the area and reflects the fact that money doesn't grow on trees. 

Where I live (San Fran Bay Area) there's an ongoing conflict around gentrification, as historically poor and ethnic neighborhoods get changed to expensive housing for relatively affluent professionals. I see this ordinance as part of Sacramento's battle with the same sort of forces. More and more of the area around Sactown is typified by planned communities, hipster conversions and tony ranchettes. Increasingly the people who fill their yard with projects are getting pushed out. It's like the county government is becoming one big homeowners association where they don't want to see blue-collar America unless it's in the form of their air conditioner repairman or gardener.

Higher property values = higher income for the government. Simple as that.

In reply to nimblemotorsports :

Hey Nimble you are right. The law is a lazy way of government. 

As we often say about car stuff on this forum. Find the way to guide the locals to a solution. Admit you had/have a hobby that at times is an eyesore. Start there and present solutions to them to avoid their biggest concern. 

Fire prevention?

Chemical spill?

Enforcement tools against illegal businesses?

Beautifying the landscape?

Jump on board with local government and I think you will find they want you to enjoy your hobby and welcome better knowledge on how to write the laws. Don't they want kids to be into STEAM? How do they get into it if they never see it?. 

Many angles to take towards mutual happiness.

And yes visit the next three meetings of the government body that created the law. 

My father in Law's only stipulation to agreeing to build a new home in a new sub division was that my mother in law support his being on the home owners association board specific to modifications to home and sight lines. He wanted to at least avoid the folks without technical backgrounds assuming they knew between grades and slopes and sheds vs barns. He put numbers to things with examples. So a shed can be x dimensions and no approval s required. 

Do the same join the government and find away to have project space welcomed with backyard BBQ space. It can happen. Just need to respect each other. 

So if a broken car has wheels and tires, but doesnt run, and you push it around the yard or driveway, that makes it "human powered" and can be worked on until it runs and drives again. 

Problem solved!

If everyone's property down there is in some respect covered in debris, rundown or has various vehicles and or pieces of equipment slowly rotting on some portion then I withdraw my contention that the OP should clean up his act.

The law is too broadly written. The several times aforementioned county ordinance is closer to where things should be at, you should be able to do pretty much whatever you want in your garage other than run a full spray booth.

nutherjrfan said:

californiamilleghia said:

Riverside county came over to my friends place with photos from a plane saying he could not have non running cars in his yard , 

 

I thought surveillance was only allowed by the naked eye from a plane.  Has the SCrOTUS changed its mind? 

Drones have changed the game.  They can be flown over just about anything and take pictures.   

Its against Federal Law for private individuals to interfere with a drone in legal airspace in anyway.    Just about everywhere is legal airspace.

Government, on the other hand, can do whatever they want.