Chesapeake, VA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Chesapeake City Code Sec. 46-13 bars any person from unreasonably or unnecessarily obstructing the free passage of other people or vehicles in a public place, a list that specifically includes sidewalks, streets, parkways, highways, roadways, medians, curbs and parks, as well as private property that is open to the public. The obstruction alone is not the offense; the violation attaches when the person fails or refuses to stop blocking passage or move on after being asked by the property owner, lessee, an agent or employee of the owner or lessee, or a law enforcement officer.

Anyone who ignores that request is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, the most serious misdemeanor class under Virginia law. Subsection (b) protects lawful picketing, soliciting and other First Amendment activity from being swept into the ordinance, but layers on a safety condition: anyone picketing, soliciting or otherwise exercising free-speech rights on the streets, sidewalks or other listed public spaces between sunset and sunrise must wear reflective upper body clothing or carry a lighted flashlight. The section also folds in the city's separate public right-of-way rules in Chapter 66, so a person exercising speech rights on a public sidewalk still has to comply with any applicable right-of-way permitting there.

The ordinance was last amended in 2017 (Ord. No. 17-O-041 and Ord. No. 17-O-083), which added the reflective-clothing and right-of-way cross-reference language to the older obstruction rule that dates back to a 1963 ordinance.