County Executive Marc Elrich said some law-violating large house parties in the county have been thwarted recently.
Last week, county Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Dr. Earl Stoddard said county agencies are collaborating to respond to illegal commercial house parties as they occur.
“I’m happy to share that through our efforts, we have thwarted a couple of these events just over the last week,” Elrich said during a briefing Wednesday. “We know that our efforts forced the organizers to relocate the planned parties out of Montgomery County.”
Elrich said some houses that have been used for multiple parties have been identified, and the county is working across departments to “respond quickly to any illegal activities that occurs during these parties.”
The illegal activities include noise violations, capacity issues, parking hazards, and charging for alcohol and food without proper permits, Elrich said.
“Without those permits, these parties could become dangerous to party-goers and people living nearby,” he said. He said the county has teams ready to respond if parties occur that are not on the county’s radar, “and if they pop up, we’re ready to mobilize a team to go deal with it.”
Most violations from parties like these would be civil, not criminal, and may result in a ticket but not an arrest. Elrich said that repeat tickets will lead to criminal charges.
He emphasized he does not support any legislation that would legalize these types of events: “This is not fair to neighbors, not fair to communities, not fair to people trying to drive down a road and expect normal, safe conditions.”
Elrich added it would put “an enormous burden on our department” to police these events if anyone was allowed to do them.
