Supervisors vote to fine “unpermitted” parties in Riverside County

The Board of Supervisors have approved a proposal to penalize anyone who hosts “unpermitted” parties that create disturbances in unincorporated Riverside County communities.

The board without comment voted unanimously to implement Ordinance No. 924, jointly crafted by Supervisors John Benoit and Kevin Jeffries with the intent of preventing “multiple responses to loud or unruly parties.”

Only one member of the public requested to speak on the matter — Mead Valley resident Brett Holstrom, who praised the concept, saying she hoped it would prove effective in quelling the bothersome noise she’d “heard over the last 19 years” originating from several homes on her block.

The regulatory concept was first brought forward in 2012 by former Supervisor Bob Buster but failed to gain traction until last November, when Benoit and Jeffries decided to model a county ordinance after municipal regulations already in place in Coachella, Moreno Valley and Palm Desert.

“It is paralleling ordinances that are already on the record books in other cities and other parts of the Southland. It basically helps protect neighborhoods from extremely loud and highly attended parties where in the past we didn’t have a tool in the tool box, this gives the deputies a new one,” said Benoit.

“Facing issues of excessive noise, excessive traffic, public drunkenness, alcohol service to minors, fights, litter and disturbances of the peace, the cities … introduced ordinances that work to shut down unruly parties by giving the sheriff the discretion to levy fees against the participants, tenants, property owners or any other responsible persons for the costs associated with repeated responses,” the supervisors wrote.

Going forward, all “temporary events” in unincorporated communities will have to be formally permitted via an application process in which hosts submit a parking plan, emergency medical services plan, sewage and potable water plan, security plan, noise and dust limitation plan and proof of insurance.

`This ordinance will work to curb the tide of party houses and unpermitted events by giving the county a tool to punish bad behavior,” according to an introduction to the measure.

The ordinance includes a provision giving deputies authority to post preemptive notices warning individuals intending to organize a non-permitted event that authorities have received word of what’s planned and that the “cost of a (sheriff’s) response will be imposed upon … all guests causing a nuisance.”

Ten or more people would need to be present at a residence before a “public nuisance” gathering could be declared.

A member of Benoit’s staff told the board during a Sept. 1 hearing that vacation rental properties had been a particular problem in the desert communities.

Fines will be levied each time deputies have to break up a noisy gathering at the same location within a 60-day period. Penalties will be waived for property owners or tenants hosting an orderly event that gets out of control due to the “conduct of persons who are present without the express or implied consent of the resident or sponsor.”

Not everyone in Bermuda Dunes is for the new ordinance.

“I think it’s terrible, it’s just one more thing that the government, our county, is starting to take control over, I mean it seems like we are losing our rights more and more,” said Atiyana Lawson of Bermuda Dunes.

“There are some people who have bought large homes for the purpose of renting the out during Stagecoach and Coachella and we will work with them and hopefully we can keep them in a situation where they are not violating the law and but neighbors have a right to some peace and quite particularly after a given hour at night,” said Benoit.

Fines will be calculated using the “direct and indirect” expenses incurred allocating law enforcement personnel to restore order. Failure to pay a fine will result in an additional $100 penalty with interest, according to the ordinance.

The measure also has provisions establishing penalties for so-called “false reporters” who summon deputies to a nuisance gathering that turns out be nothing of the sort.