August 21, 2019—Sacramento County in California has an ordinance that prohibits vehicle owners and homeowners from performing certain car-care items in their personal garages, reports The Newswheel.
Citing information reported in The Drive, parts of the city's zoning codes prohibit you from performing “major automobile repair or maintenance” either inside or outside of a personal garage. The code does allow owners to complete a handful of auto repairs in their garage, as long as the vehicle is registered under the name of someone who lives there.
The code uses the term “minor automotive repair” to prescribe which auto repairs you can legally perform in your garage. The list includes the following service items: minor tune-up, oil/filter change, repairing a flat tire, brake part replacement, and car-part lubrication.
In addition, the zoning code also bans repairs that involve the use of “tools not normally found in a residence.”
County officials could categorize any maintenance task not explicitly mentioned in the above list as “major automobile repair or maintenance,” which would become a fine. According to a recent discussion on the Grassroots Motorsports forum, one Sacramento County resident was cited with a $430 fine for this type of code breach.
