Orange County Municipal Code Art. 1 General Provisions

The Board of Supervisors of Orange County finds that the Orange County Sheriff's Department responds to numerous disturbances in residential areas during normal sleeping hours involving unreasonably loud, raucous or jarring noises and/or conduct constituting disturbing the peace or unlawful assembly in violation of the California Penal Code. The Board further finds that such disturbances are extremely disruptive to the peace and quiet of residential neighborhoods and often constitute an immediate and significant threat and detriment to the public health, welfare and safety.

The Board of Supervisors of Orange County finds that the Orange County Sheriff's Department often is required to respond a second or third time in the same night to a disturbance at the same location because the Sheriff's directions to cease the disturbance go unheeded. The necessity for repeated responses to the same disturbance creates a serious drain on available law enforcement manpower, leaving Sheriff personnel unavailable to perform other duties and, therefore, creates a significant threat and detriment to public health, welfare and safety.

It is the intent of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, in enacting this Division, to enhance the Orange County Sheriff's ability to abate disturbances which constitute public nuisances and which are immediate threats to public health or safety without making repeated responses to the scene of the same disturbance.

It is further the intent of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, in enacting this Division, to enable the County of Orange to recover the excessive costs it incurs when repeated responses to the same disturbance constituting a public nuisance are necessary to abate it.

It is further the intent of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, in enacting this Division, to provide the Sheriff with a procedure for quelling disturbances in residential areas during normal sleeping hours by means less drastic than resort to criminal process.

(Ord. No. 3789, § 1, 8-7-90)

(a) The procedures set forth in this Division for summary abatement of nuisances, and for making the costs of such abatement up to five hundred dollars ($500.00) a special assessment against the parcel on which the nuisance existed, are adopted pursuant to California Government Code Section 25845 and Article 11, Section 7 of the California Constitution.

(b) The procedures set forth in this Division are not exclusive and are in addition to the procedures for abatement which are conferred upon the County by California Civil Code Section 3494, California Code of Civil Procedure Section 731 and any other applicable provision of law. (Ord. No. 3789, § 1, 8-7-90)

(a) Residence means a structure providing complete independent living facilities for one or more persons including permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking and sanitation.

(b) Residential area means any area in an unincorporated part of the County which is within three hundred (300) feet of any single-family or multi-family residence, other than commercial hotels, motels and similar establishments for temporary lodging, measured by a straight line between the closest structural wall of the residence and the location of the behavior described in section 3-15-4(a) or the source of the noise described in section 3-15-4(b). (Ord. No. 3789, § 1, 8-7-90)