Following years of complaints from residents in the Hollywood Hills over loud music and congested streets, people hosting nuisance parties could face fines up to $8,000 for repeatedly disturbing their neighbors.

Councilman David Ryu, 4th District, held a press conference preceding Wednesday’s City Council meeting, when the council approved the law. (photo courtesy of the 4th Council District Office)

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a law introducing a formal definition of a “loud and unruly gathering,” and a scale of fines as a deterrent.

“[Residents] have tried every other avenue to address these party houses and nothing has worked,” said Councilman David Ryu, 4th District, who introduced a motion for the city attorney to draft the ordinance.

“We’ve tried literally everything else that could be tried without success,” Councilman Paul Koretz, 5th District, added in support of the new law.

Residents throughout L.A., especially in the Hollywood Hills, have been calling for stricter law enforcement of nuisance party houses for years.

Violators of the new law will face a $100 fine for a first offense, $500 for a second, $1,000 for a third, $2,000 for a fourth, $4,000 for a fifth and $8,000 for a sixth or more. If a person who is issued a fine under this law makes it one year without receiving another fine, the fine scale resets.

“It’s with enormous thanks and great relief that we celebrate the passage of the party house ordinance, a project long in the making,” said Anastasia Mann, president of the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council. “This will come as a great relief to residents who have had to endure significant damage to their quality of life issues due to unruly, out of control – mostly commercial – parties in neighborhoods across Los Angeles but particularly in the Hollywood and other hillside communities.”

The ordinance also provides a definition of a “loud and unruly gathering,” and lists a series of actions that constitute “loud and unruly conduct.” Steve Houchin, a neighborhood prosecutor for the city attorney’s office, told residents at a town hall last year that the lack of a legal definition of a party house has hindered law enforcement.

Loud music, obstructing roads and sidewalks, public drunkenness, vandalism or destruction of property, litter, urinating or defecating in public, and trespassing are some of the activities prohibited under the ordinance. These, and some of the other actions prohibited by the ordinance, are already illegal, but the new law will hold the party house owners responsible.

Before this ordinance, a partygoer urinating in public, for example, would be held responsible as an individual, but his actions would not have consequences for the owner of a house hosting a loud and unruly gathering.

Local neighborhood councils have said they support the ordinance, including a few that wanted stiffer provisions. The Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council, for example, said it wants short-term rentals to be identified as part of the party house problem. Many residents in the Hollywood Hills have complained that they have neighbors who use Airbnb, or other short-term rental websites, to rent their homes to guests who throw nuisance parties. The City Council has been working on a separate set of regulations that would regulate the short-term rental market.

In a 2011 letter issued to city officials, 19 residents on North Curson Street said their windows rattle until as late as 5 a.m. because of the frequent parties.

“The party guests race up and down the street far above the safe speed limit, endangering local children at play, pedestrians, and wildlife,” the letter read. “These same attendees also frequently drive while intoxicated. They continually blare their car horns, double park, urinate on our properties and throw various and sundry garbage along the street and on lawns including, but not limited to, beer bottles and used condoms. Imagine if this were happening in your neighborhood.”

Their complaints, and similar ones throughout the hills, have persisted.

Last fall, City Attorney Mike Feuer said that “the party’s over for out-of-control nuisance houses” when he announced charges against the owner of one such house, and the property manager of another.

When the ordinance was still making its way through committee, Nick Greif, Ryu’s director of policy and legislation, said the new ordinance would make a “night and day” difference in enforcement.