Catoosa County, GA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Unincorporated Catoosa County has no general anti-loitering ordinance covering public streets, parks, or business districts. The only place the Official Code of Catoosa County actually uses the word 'loitering' outside the alcohol chapter is Section 66-41, the facility rules for the county's solid waste management operations, meaning the landfill and its collection sites. Subsection (d) lists general rules for anyone on the property: smoking and alcohol are prohibited except where expressly permitted, no one under 18 may enter the facility in a waste collection or disposal vehicle, and loitering on and about the facilities is flatly prohibited.

These rules sit alongside operational requirements for haulers, such as permits for commercial and industrial waste disposal and inspection rights reserved to the Solid Waste Management Department. Because loitering has no separately listed fine, it falls under the catch-all in Section 66-42(b): a warning on the first violation, a two-day suspension of dumping privileges on the second, and a full week's suspension for the third and later violations. Independent of that administrative track, Section 66-43 makes any violation of the solid waste article a misdemeanor punishable under Section 1-19, with citations issued by the head of the Solid Waste Management Department and trials held under O.C.G.A. § 15-10-60.

The county may also pursue civil enforcement in superior court, including injunctions and recovery of cleanup costs and attorney's fees for bad-faith violations. Anyone visiting the county landfill should treat the loitering ban as a condition of entry rather than a general public-conduct rule; it does not reach sidewalks, parks, or business parking lots elsewhere in the unincorporated county.