Bay County, FL Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Sec. 15-48, the "Porter Bridge and Highway 20 Bridge Safety Ordinance," targets a specific safety problem the board of county commissioners identified in its findings of fact: people jumping or diving from the two bridges over Econfina Creek in northern Bay County, groups gathering unlawfully on the spans, and open containers of alcohol in the surrounding rights-of-way. The ordinance defines "unlawful assembly" as a group of three or more people loitering, prowling, standing, walking, running or meeting together on either bridge, and separately bans possessing an open alcoholic beverage container within the "Porter Bridge area" or "State Road 20 Bridge area," each defined as the bridge itself plus 200 feet of approach right-of-way on both the east and west sides. Diving or jumping from either bridge is flatly prohibited under subsection (d), independent of the loitering rule.

Because the ordinance is written around these two named bridges rather than public property generally, it does not create a county-wide loitering law; a person gathering with friends on a beach or in a parking lot elsewhere in the county is not covered by Sec. 15-48. Violations are punishable under the Code's general penalty at Sec. 1-6 (up to $500.00 fine, 60 days in jail, or both) and can alternatively be charged as a civil infraction under Sec. 7-1, which caps civil fines at $500.00 per violation and lets a code enforcement officer or law enforcement officer issue a citation directly.