Sunnyvale, CA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Section 9.56.030 sits inside Chapter 9.56, the city's ordinance on aggressive solicitation and roadway obstruction, and it is the code's only general loitering prohibition. It states plainly that it is unlawful for any person to loiter in a median strip within a street, highway, or other city-maintained public right-of-way, and defines 'loiter' as lingering or remaining in the median for any purpose unrelated to safely traversing the street, except in an emergency. The only carve-out is for authorized city personnel or contractors repairing or maintaining the median or adjacent roadway.

The chapter grew out of council findings that pedestrians standing in medians or roadways to solicit money, business or employment from vehicle occupants distract drivers and create a serious risk of collisions, and Chapter 9.56 also separately bars soliciting from a roadway (Section 9.56.040) and from unauthorized areas of posted commercial parking lots (Section 9.56.050). Section 9.56.070 sets the penalty for the whole chapter, including the median-strip loitering ban: every violation is an infraction, unless the same person accumulates five or more convictions under the chapter within a thirty-six month period, at which point a later violation can be charged as a misdemeanor.

Because the ban applies only to medians and city-maintained rights-of-way, it does not reach loitering on private property, sidewalks away from the roadway, or in city parks, which are addressed separately under Chapter 9.62's park-conduct rules.