It’s 10 P.M.: Do You Know Where Your Trash Cans Are?

Consider these examples from the “Who Knew?” department of obscure and overlooked government rules and regulations:

* It’s a misdemeanor to put your garbage cans in public view before dawn in Buena Park on trash-collection days, and they must be put away by 10 p.m.

* “For sale” signs are not allowed on vehicles in Anaheim.

* If you build a new home in Costa Mesa, you won’t be allowed to back out of your driveway if it’s more than 100 feet to the asphalt or you live on a busy street.

* In the unincorporated areas, it’s unlawful to mutilate or destroy a yucca, or pick any of its flowers, whether it is on private or public property.

These are just some of the little-known laws on the books across Orange County, touching on many aspects of daily life.

Most of the laws are intended to protect public health and safety, such as assuring that drivers don’t back out blind across multiple lanes of traffic or that refuse doesn’t attract flies, rodents or human scavengers.

Others are as likely to cause consternation, such as a county law that prohibits anyone 21 or older from using public playground equipment. Article 2, Section 3-8-13, subsection (b) even defines what equipment adults are supposed to shun: rock-a-bye swings, giant strides, board teeter outfits, combination straight travel rings, merry-go-rounds, etc.

“I have no idea where that one came from,” Orange County Counsel Laurence M. Watson said.

Many laws are the result of neighborhood complaints that end up before city councils, said Janet Huston, executive director of the Orange County chapter of the League of California Cities. “It’s not like code-enforcement officers are driving around and they get a brilliant idea,” Huston said. “These things are cyclical and a lot of times they relate to technology.”

Like the rash of ordinances two decades ago regulating pinball arcades. Or the flurry of prohibitions in recent years against gasoline-powered leaf blowers and skateboarding in public places.

“City councils try to respond to citizen complaints because if they didn’t, they’d be accused of not listening to their constituents,” Huston said.

It was constant complaints that led to Buena Park’s codes--five in all--that deal with trash receptacles. What started as a health issue became more of an aesthetics concern, Buena Park Senior Inspector Jim Morrie said.

“We do get complaints, but it’s a real low priority,” Morrie said. “We have never taken one and filed criminal charges. We send an officer out there to inform the resident and they usually point down the street and say, ‘I’ll do it when they do it.’ ”

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Safety concerns in Costa Mesa led to building department regulations--which are incorporated into city codes--that require the construction of circular driveways or turnarounds for new homes on busy streets or for multifamily dwellings.

In Laguna Beach, a resident recently complained before the City Council that he couldn’t wage a personal war against pesky pigeons. The entire city is a bird sanctuary, prohibiting wild birds or their nests from being disturbed.

Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Business Council, said the most interesting ordinance he discovered during his years as a county executive assistant was the requirement that Communists register with the county sheriff.

“In the 1950s, [Soviet Premier] Nikita Khrushchev was going to come to Disneyland, and there was this hubbub about it,” Oftelie said. “The Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Jim Musick were crabby about Khrushchev coming and they decided he should have to register when he got here. He ended up not coming because they couldn’t guarantee his security.”

Perspective is a weekly column highlighting trends or events that define Orange County, or an issue that affects the county. Readers are encouraged to call Los Angeles Times correspondent Jean O. Pasco at (714) 564-1052 or send an e-mail to Jean.Pasco@la times.com