La Habra, CA Public Conduct: Loud Party Ordinance (2026)

Chapter 9.38, Social Host Accountability, adopted by Ordinance 1734 in 2012, targets gatherings where alcohol reaches underage guests. Section 9.38.020 defines a "loud or unruly gathering" as four or more people at a residence, other private property, or rented public property where conduct such as excessive noise under Chapter 9.34, traffic obstruction, street obstruction, public drunkenness under Penal Code Section 647(f), assaults or domestic violence, vandalism under Penal Code Section 594, or littering under Penal Code Section 374 occurs. Section 9.38.030 makes it unlawful to conduct or knowingly allow such a gathering at a home, apartment, hotel room, hall or rented meeting room, whether owned, leased or used with or without compensation, where alcohol is served to, consumed by, or possessed by anyone under twenty-one.

Before citing anyone, Section 9.38.040 requires an officer to confirm an underage person is consuming, possessing or being served alcohol, that someone is hosting the event, and that the gathering is loud or unruly. Section 9.38.050 exempts premises regulated by the state Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control and exempts alcohol use exclusively between a minor and that minor's own parent or guardian. Section 9.38.060 declares a loud or unruly gathering a public nuisance the city may abate, recovering its enforcement costs. That cost recovery runs alongside the separate Multiple Police Responses ordinance, Chapter 9.34, under which the first police response to a loud party is a free warning, but the host, property owner or occupant is personally billed for every second and later response, with joint and several liability between owner and occupant and a lien against the property for nonpayment.