Fresno County, CA Curfew Laws: Park Curfew (2026)

Courthouse Park sits on roughly 11.7 acres surrounding the Fresno County Superior Court, Hall of Records, Sheriff's Office headquarters, and the South Annex Jail in downtown Fresno, bounded by Tulare Street, Van Ness Avenue, Fresno Street and M Street under Section 13.20.010. Because the park adjoins active law-enforcement and judicial facilities, the Board of Supervisors found in Section 13.20.015 that the county "has a substantial and overriding government interest in preserving the security of these facilities and functions." Section 13.20.060(C) implements that interest with a nighttime access rule: it is unlawful "to loiter in the park or to be therein for any other purpose than to pass through the park on the walks thereof between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. of the next succeeding day." The curfew sits among a longer list of acts barred in Courthouse Park under the same section, including riding or parking vehicles off the designated driveways, camping or lodging without a permit, and carrying firearms or fireworks.

Section 13.20.070(A) classifies a Section 13.20.060(C) curfew violation as a misdemeanor, though the prosecuting agency may instead charge it as an infraction, and either charge is punishable under the county's general penalty sections: 1.12.010 for a misdemeanor (up to a $500 fine and/or six months in jail) or 1.12.020 for an infraction (up to a $200 fine). The curfew provision is one of several public-safety rules the Board adopted for the courthouse grounds specifically because the site also functions as a public forum for speech, which is why Section 13.20.015 frames the restriction as balancing security against citizens' assembly rights rather than a blanket park-closure rule found elsewhere in the county code.