Whenever any city, city and county, or county shall have established zones or districts under authority of law wherein certain manufacturing or commercial or airport uses are expressly permitted, except in an action to abate a public nuisance brought in the name of the people of the State of California, no person or persons, firm or corporation shall be enjoined or restrained by the injunctive process from the reasonable and necessary operation in any such industrial or commercial zone or airport of any use expressly permitted therein, nor shall such use be deemed a nuisance without evidence of the employment of unnecessary and injurious methods of operation. Nothing in this act shall be deemed to apply to the regulation and working hours of canneries, fertilizing plants, refineries and other similar establishments whose operation produce offensive odors.
§ 731a.Zones Or Districts Wherein Manufacturing Or Commercial Or Airport Uses Permitted
Title 10. Actions In Particular Cases · Chapter 2. Actions for Nuisance, Waste, and Willful Trespass, in Certain Cases, on Real Property · Last amended 1959 · Last verified July 28, 2026
In one sentenceSection 731a shields reasonable and necessary manufacturing, commercial, or airport operations conducted within a properly zoned industrial, commercial, or airport district from private nuisance injunctions absent evidence of unnecessary and injurious operating methods, though public nuisance actions brought by the state remain unaffected.
Full Text of § 731a
Plain-English Summary
Zoning creates an expectation that certain uses belong in certain places, and § 731a protects that expectation from private nuisance suits. Once a city, city and county, or county has established zones or districts where manufacturing, commercial, or airport uses are expressly permitted, no one can enjoin the reasonable and necessary operation of a use permitted in that zone — and such a use can't even be deemed a nuisance — without evidence that it employed unnecessary and injurious operating methods.
The protection has real limits. It doesn't reach an action to abate a public nuisance brought in the name of the People of California, so government enforcement against a truly harmful use isn't blocked. And the statute expressly leaves untouched the regulation of working hours for canneries, fertilizing plants, refineries, and similar facilities whose operations produce offensive odors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a business operating in a properly zoned industrial area be sued for nuisance just for existing there?
Generally no. Section 731a bars enjoining, or treating as a nuisance, the reasonable and necessary operation of a use expressly permitted in a properly established zone, absent evidence of unnecessary and injurious operating methods.
Does this protection apply to public nuisance actions brought by the government?
No. Section 731a expressly excepts an action to abate a public nuisance brought in the name of the People of California.
Does § 731a limit local regulation of working hours for odor-producing facilities?
No, the statute states it doesn't apply to the regulation of working hours for canneries, fertilizing plants, refineries, and similar establishments whose operations produce offensive odors.
Amendment History
Amended by Stats. 1959, Ch. 795.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 28, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: zoning nuisance defense californiaindustrial zone nuisance protection