Short answer. Yes, if the nuisance is specially injurious to you. Civil Code Article 703 lets a private person file an action over a public nuisance when it hurts them in a particular way beyond what the general public experiences. Ordinary public nuisances that affect everyone alike are otherwise handled through public, not private, action.
What the law says
A private person may file an action on account of a public nuisance, if it is specially injurious to himself.
Civil Code, Article 703 — Private Action For Public Nuisance. Read the full provision →
The key word is "specially"
Article 703 gives a private individual standing to sue over a public nuisance only “if it is specially injurious to himself.” That word carries the whole rule: your harm has to be different in kind or degree from the harm the general public suffers, not simply a shared inconvenience felt a little more sharply because you live nearby. A nuisance that bothers the whole neighborhood equally is not, on that basis alone, one you can sue over personally under this article.
What counts as specially injurious
The classic distinction is between a general annoyance shared by the public and a particular injury landing on you in a way it does not land on your neighbors — property damage confined to your lot, a health effect specific to your household, or an obstruction that blocks your access in particular. The closer your harm is to something the public at large is not experiencing the same way, the stronger your position under Article 703.
Why the law separates public and private action here
A public nuisance is, by definition, a wrong against the community rather than any one person, and ordinarily it is addressed through public authority acting for the community as a whole. Article 703 opens a private route around that only where the harm to a particular person stands apart from the general public's shared experience. Without that special injury, the remedy for a purely public nuisance stays with the action meant to represent the public interest, not an individual private suit.
Article 699 sets out the remedies against a public nuisance — a prosecution under the penal law or a local ordinance, a civil action, and abatement without judicial proceedings. Article 703 is what determines whether a private individual, rather than the authorities acting for the community, may be the one to pursue the civil route.
What this means for building your case
If you intend to rely on Article 703, be specific about how the nuisance affects you differently from the general public — document the particular damage, disruption, or harm to your property or household, rather than describing the nuisance only in general terms that could apply to anyone in the area. The stronger and more concrete that distinction is, the more clearly your claim fits within what this article actually allows.
Two things this article does not do are worth stating plainly. It does not turn a public nuisance into a private one, so the community's own remedies remain available alongside yours. And it is not permission to deal with the nuisance yourself: abating a public nuisance extrajudicially has its own conditions under Article 704, and Article 707 makes whoever does so liable in damages for unnecessary injury, or where the courts later hold the thing was no nuisance at all.