City Approves New Noise Laws
Before Monday, the law just specified “excessive noise” as being unlawful. Now that term has been explained a little bit more in detail. Thanks to Charles Samuels.
Here are some highlights. Personally, I don’t really mind too much what noise is made during normal hours of the day, it’s more the nighttime ones that I appreciate. I hope my neighbors are reading this. . .
- Between 7am and 11pm you can’t play music, TV, etc. inside your home so loudly that it can be heard outside your home or 50 feet away from the device (stereo, computer, TV, etc.) (Note: the word “phonograph” was actually in the ordinance – they know it’s 2010, right?)
- Between 11pm and 7am sound from such equipment (stereo, TV, etc.) can only be loud enough for the person playing it to hear it
- Between midnight and 7am you can’t make noise in your home that can be heard in another home, apartment, etc.
- It is unlawful to let an animal or bird be so loud that it can be heard at least once a minute for 10 straight minutes from a neighbor’s home or 50-feet from the barking dog, chirping bird, etc.
- You can’t play your car radio so loudly that it can be heard 50 feet from your car
- You can’t drive a car so beat-up that it rattles so loudly it can be heard 350 feet away from the car
- You can’t honk your horn just to honk, it needs to be used as a warning of on-coming danger
- You can’t make lots of noise taking out your trash between 10pm and 5am
- You can’t make lots of noise doing yard work between 10pm and 7am
- You can’t make lots of noise doing home improvement stuff between 7pm and 7am
- There are exceptions to the noise rules like special permits, religious services, and sounds made by police cars.
(thanks to CBS 6 for the condensed version)
Punishment is class 2 misdemeanor charges – confinement in jail for up to six months and a fine of up to $1,000, either or both.
What do you think? These laws sound reasonable? Too much? How about the punishment?
Late night noise in the Fan bothers me sometimes too, but these rules are a joke.
I wish people who drive really noisy motorcycles would be asked to muffle the engines somehow. It’s incredibly disturbing to be blasted by motorcycle noise inside my own home.
If you don’t like noise, move out of the city. These new laws are mildly stupid…
Is ‘lots of noise’ really in the ordinance? Or is that just the summary. Because I don’t really see how ‘lots of noise’ improves on ‘excessive noise.’
I think noise control is one way to make urban cores more livable, no? Do we really want to drive everyone to the ‘burbs?
These laws are ridiculous. 6 months in jail for taking the trash out loudly?
C’mon! This is so not necessary. Watch out for the Noise Police!
A Misdemeanor? Really. You are going to make people who make to much noise criminals with rap sheets? Couldn’t they just charge a civil penalty?
I’d like to hear some noise nightmare stories. Mine only involve earsplitting fire and police sirens that run past my apartment 5 or 10 times a night.
I think if someone followed each of the city council members, they would find at least one of them in violation of this ordinance at least once in the next year. Sometimes noise happens.
Draconian.
sh*t sandwich
I wish that we’d had a working noise ordinance last year:
I had a neighbor across the alley last summer that was “learning” how to play the saxaphone. He’d start drinking and playing just after noon and go until past midnight. He’d set up a boombox and play along to a loop of the same 2 or 3 songs. He was clearly audible inside every room of our house. He did this almost daily for 2 months, and then thankfully moved. It was an awful experience.
It’s crazy that this is a misdemeanor. Can you imagine sending a first-time offender to jail for taking out the trash too loudly??? Nuts. This could all be solved by making legal to retaliate against neighbors who are rude — TP-ing their house, “forking” their yard, etc. Message would be delivered without crazy laws that won’t be consistently enforced (read: I bet loud bluegrass music won’t be punished, but if you are a fan of Akon….)
It also seems that this might be unconstitutionally vague. Can you imagine the cops trying to determine whether they can hear your TV 50 feet away or whether your car is audible from 350 feet? I’ll help out pro-bono if someone gets standing to challenge this.
I wonder how many of these people that have problems with their neighbors being loud have actually asked their neighbors to be more quiet. Our society has gotten a little too passive aggressive.
@Doug, I agree with you overall. But I have actually asked my neighbors to be quieter (after midnight when my children are trying to sleep) with essentially no change in noise/behavior. I’m genuinely interested in knowing what to do then? Does his right to ‘noise’ supersede my right to sleep? Is it just a reality of life in the city as other commenters suggest?
I asked my drunken saxaphone playing neighbor to please be more considerate and he basically threatened to shoot me.
We’re gonna need a bigger jail.
I am a singer and I practice in my home every day, usually when my neighbors are at work. Is the city going to pay for me to rent a sound proof practice space or install sound-absorbing material on my walls? Is it fair to let someone else work from home while I can’t?
Stephanie – AH! You are my neighbor! Keep it down please, I work at night.
dang — we gonna have to shoot a lot of birds to get this ‘hood to specs !!!