Santa Barbara County, CA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

County Code Sec. 23-13 makes it unlawful for any person to stop or loiter on or about any overhead crossing or overstructure above a state highway, railroad, or county road anywhere in the unincorporated area of Santa Barbara County. The ordinance dates to 1958 (Ord. No. 1282) and was written to keep pedestrian overpasses clear of people who might drop objects onto vehicles or trains below or otherwise interfere with traffic passing underneath. It is narrow by design: it reaches only overhead crossings and overstructures, not sidewalks, street corners, parking lots, or other public places where a broader anti-loitering law might apply elsewhere.

Santa Barbara County has no general-purpose loitering ordinance covering those other locations; the code's only loitering-specific provision is this overpass rule. The section carries a built-in exception for on-duty personnel: officers, agents, and employees of the county, the state, or the United States acting in the performance of official duty are exempt, as are persons those officers specifically delegate to help with that duty. Because the rule sits in Chapter 23 (Traffic and Vehicles) rather than the penal or nuisance chapters, county deputies enforce it as a traffic-safety measure tied to the roads and rail lines the overpasses cross, rather than as a general public-order statute.