Solano County, CA Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

Section 21-14 of the Solano County Code, part of Chapter 21's Public Peace and Safety article, is titled Picketing, but subsection (a) sets out a general public right-of-way obstruction rule that operates independently of any labor dispute context. It states that no person shall loiter, stand, or sit in or on any public highway, alley, sidewalk, or crosswalk so as to hinder or obstruct in any manner the free passage of persons or vehicles or to annoy or molest passing persons. The rest of Section 21-14 goes on to restrict picketing conduct specifically, including inducing an employee to quit through compulsion, coercion, or threats under subsections (b) through (d), but subsection (a) itself is a freestanding obstruction offense that applies to any person blocking a sidewalk or crosswalk, not only picketers.

Because the ordinance traces to Ordinance No. 160 from the county's early public-peace code and was carried forward through Ordinance No. 1691, its obstruction language predates the more specific encampment and camping rules found later in the code at Sections 19-230 and 19-240, meaning it functions as the county's general-purpose sidewalk-blocking offense rather than a homelessness-specific tool. Subsection (e) preserves a First Amendment carve-out, stating the section does not prohibit peaceable picketing or peaceable means of pursuing labor aims including collective bargaining, which confirms the obstruction language in (a) targets physical blocking of passage rather than protected speech or assembly as such.

Enforcement falls to the Solano County Sheriff's Office as the general law enforcement agency for the unincorporated area, and a violation is prosecuted as a public offense under Chapter 21.