Santa Clara, CA Public Conduct: Loud Party Ordinance (2026)
Key Facts
- Special response fee
- $500 minimum or actual City cost
- Second-response window
- 72 hours after written warning
- Fifth response in a year
- $900 fine, property posted
- Notice defacement penalty
- $100 civil fine
- Landlord liability trigger
- second City response within a year
- Party defined
- 3+ persons assembled for a social occasion
Summary
Santa Clara City Code § 9.05.020 lets police bill whoever hosts, controls, or sponsors a loud or unruly gathering once a second response is needed within 72 hours of a warning: a special response fee of at least $500. Fines then escalate with repeat calls to the same address within a year, and hosts, residents, sponsors and even a minor host's parents are jointly and severally liable.
When three or more persons gather together at a premises or place in the City and a police officer at the scene determines that one or more persons are engaged in activities that are causing a threat to the peace, health, safety, or general welfare of any member of the public...the police shall give written notice...that the activities must immediately cease, and that if a subsequent police response arising out of the same or similar activities is required within seventy-two (72) hours following such notice, a special response fee will be charged to each person identified in subsection (b) of this section. The special seventy-two (72) hour response fee is defined as the cost incurred by the City in connection with such response or five hundred dollars ($500.00), whichever is greater... (b) Each person responsible for, or engaged in, activities requiring a response...will be held jointly and severally liable for payment of the special response fee. A responsible person includes a person residing at or otherwise in control of the property, as well as the person(s) who organized or sponsored the gathering.
Full Breakdown
005(d)). 020, once an officer warns those in control of the gathering to stop, any further police response within 72 hours triggers a special response fee equal to the City's actual cost or $500, whichever is greater. 020(f), fines escalate from $500 for a second response within 72 hours down to smaller amounts for later windows, then climb again for a third ($300), fourth ($600) and fifth ($900) response within a year, at which point the property is posted as a public nuisance; every response after the fifth costs $1,000.
025, the City must post a notice on the premises after any nuisance response, mail notice to the property owner, and the residents must keep that notice up for three months or face a $100 civil penalty for removing or defacing it. 027 makes the property owner jointly and severally liable for these fees once the City has responded more than once in a year, provided the owner was mailed notice at least a week before the second event; in a multi-unit building, only the owner of the involved unit is liable.
Violations & Fines
Violations are enforced criminally, civilly, or through Chapter 1.10 administrative citations at the City's discretion. A single-incident nuisance response that requires immediate abatement adds a flat $500 fee on top of any other charge. Guests, hosts, property owners, and sponsors of the event share joint and several liability for all fees and penalties under this chapter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Santa Clara police charge me for a second call to my party?
How much can repeated loud parties at the same address cost?
Is a Santa Clara landlord liable for a tenant's loud party?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Santa Clara
California rules heatmap·Compare Santa Clara to another location·View the California public conduct overview
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Loud Party Ordinance in Nearby Cities
How other cities in Santa Clara County handle loud party ordinance.