There's a lot of good reasons to live in California (millions of people must agree), there are also lots of draw backs and problems. One of biggest obstacles is all of the levels of bureaucracy and laws/ordinances each pile on to their citizens. First thing you need to do is get familiar with the local ordnances. Most municipalities in California have them available online. Next make every attempt to be respectful and courteous to your neighbors. What you do on your property effects their property too! You need to try and get your scrapping activity "OUT of SIGHT" and inconspicuous as you can possibly do. In my city code enforcement (I call the revenue police) will issue two warnings, then thy start the fines. Here all it takes is a on line anonymous complaint from a neighbor and the revenue police are writing tickets. Basically they don't want to see any violations from the street (no business activity visual in a residential area).