Sacramento County Says It's Illegal to Work on Your Own Car in Your Own Garage
There’s an interesting discussion happening over at the Grassroots Motorsports forum right now, and presumably at many other places off-line. It’s about laws in Sacramento County stating, essentially, that almost any auto repair you do on your property is illegal. Of course, this is deeply troubling to almost everyone reading right now.
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The code states that conducting “minor vehicle repair” or “minor automotive repair” is legal at a residence, and defines “minor automotive repair” as:
Brake part replacement
Minor tune-ups
Change of oil and filter
Repair of flat tires
Lubrication
Other similar operations
(See section 5.2.0.B of the Zoning Code)
OK, that seems fairly reasonable so far. That is, until you get to this section of the explanatory website:
2. Is Minor Vehicle Repair Permitted at Residences?
Yes. However, it is unlawful for any person to engage in, or permit others to engage in, minor vehicle repair or maintenance in any agricultural, agricultural-residential, residential, interim estate and interim residential zones under any of the following circumstances:
1. Using tools not normally found in a residence;
2. Conducted on vehicles registered to persons, not currently residing on the lot or parcel;
3. Conducted outside a fully enclosed garage and resulting in any vehicle being inoperable for a period in excess of twenty-four hours.
Here we have some issues. How exactly do you define “tools not normally found in a residence?” A socket set? A torque wrench? A brake drum puller? This feels like a rule that’s dangerously open to interpretation with pretty minimal supporting evidence.
Number two is clearly there to prevent people from running off-the-books repair shops, but what if you’re working on a friend’s car? And number three means you can’t do anything unless you have an actual garage, and whatever you’re doing you better get it all wrapped up inside of one day, which, as most of us who’ve dealt with one stubborn, time-sucking, hard-to-reach bolt know, is not always possible.
Of course, “Major Automotive Repair,” that is, anything not explicitly defined under “Minor Automotive Repair,” is not legal anywhere on your own property, even if you’re doing it in the sanctity of your own closed garage.
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Sure, if your lawn is full of junked cars and you’re running an illegal lube shop out of your backyard, those are real issues. But residents with project cars they work on? There’s no good reason that should be illegal.
For people with vintage or unusual cars, there often is no other option than to be able to do at least some of your own repairs, and laws that make that illegal are effectively making vast amounts of the entire car-owning-as-an-interest or hobby illegal, and who wants that?
