CHAPTER 9.44
NOISE
Section
9.44.020 Special restrictions - residential areas
9.44.030 Schools, hospitals, and churches
9.44.050 Considerations of City’s Technical Advisory Committee
9.44.060 Statement from applicant
9.44.080 Exceptions granted when
9.44.090 Standards of enforcement
9.44.100 Exceptions to chapter
9.44.010 DEEMED MISDEMEANOR.
Every person, firm, or corporation who willfully makes, continues, or causes to be made or continued, any loud, unnecessary, unusual penetrating, or boisterous noise, disturbance, or commotion, which disturbs the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or which causes a discomfort or annoyance to any reasonable person of normal sensitiveness residing in the area is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(Ord. 413, § 1, passed -- 1972)
9.44.020 SPECIAL RESTRICTIONS - RESIDENTIAL AREAS.
A. Between the hours of 10:00 p.m. of one (1) day and 7:00 a.m. of the following day, it is unlawful for any person within a residential zone, or within a radius of 500 feet therefrom, to create, cause to be created or maintain sources of noise which cause annoyance or discomfort to a reasonable person of normal sensitiveness in the neighborhood.
B. The sources include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Excessively loud noises caused by the use or operation of radios, musical instruments and drums, phonographs, television sets, or other machines or devices for the production, reproduction or amplification of sound;
2. Operation of equipment or performance of any outside construction or repair work on buildings, structures, or projects or operation of construction-type devices;
3. Excessively loud sounds, cries, or behavioral noise caused by the keeping or maintenance of animals or fowl;
4. Excessively loud noise caused by the operation of any machinery, chain saw, equipment, device, pump, fan compressor, air conditioning apparatus, or similar mechanical device;
5. Operation of chimes, bells, or other devices for the purpose of advertising or inviting the patronage of any person or persons to any business enterprise; and
6. Repairing, rebuilding, or testing of motor vehicles or operating of any motor-driven vehicle off public streets or highways.
(Ord. 413, § 2, passed -- 1972)
9.44.030 SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS, AND CHURCHES.
It is unlawful for any person to create any noise on any street, sidewalk, or public place adjacent to any school, institution of learning, or church while the same is in use, or adjacent to any hospital, which noise unreasonably interferes with the workings of the institutions or which disturbs or unduly annoys the patients in the hospital; providing conspicuous signs are displayed in the streets, sidewalks or any public place indicating the presence of a school, church, or hospital.
(Ord. 413, § 3, passed -- 1972)
9.44.040 AMPLIFIED SOUND.
It is unlawful for any person other than personnel of law enforcement or governmental agencies to install, use, or operate within the City, and outside a building, a loudspeaker or amplifying device in a fixed or moveable position or mounted upon any vehicle for the purpose of giving instructions, directions, talks, addresses, lectures, or transmitting music to any persons or assembly of persons in or upon any street, alley, sidewalk, or public property without first obtaining approval of the City’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
(Ord. 413, § 4 (part), passed -- 1972; Am. Ord. 810, § 1A, passed -- 1998)
9.44.050 CONSIDERATIONS OF CITY’S TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), when considering the application, shall recognize and consider the constitutional rights of free speech of all persons, including the applicant, but shall also consider the correlative constitutional rights of the citizens of the City to privacy and freedom from public nuisance of loud and unnecessary noise. TAC, if granting permission, shall reserve the right to enforce whatever rules, conditions, or restrictions that it deems necessary to ensure that the sound shall be so controlled that it will not be unreasonably loud, raucous, varying, disturbing, or a nuisance to persons of normal sensitiveness within the area of audibility.
(Ord. 413, § 4 (part), passed -- 1972; Am. Ord. 810, § 1B, passed -- 1998)
9.44.060 STATEMENT FROM APPLICANT.
The applicant shall submit in writing, at least two (2) weeks prior to a regularly or specially scheduled meeting, a statement outlining:
A. Name and address of both the user and owner of the sound amplifying equipment, as well as address and location and owner of site of proposed use;
B. The maximum sound producing power of the equipment including wattage used, volume of sound to be used in decibels and approximate distance from which sound will be audible;
C. Description of the proposed use including intent and purpose; and
D. Whether the sound equipment will be used for commercial or noncommercial purposes.
(Ord. 413, § 4 (part), passed -- 1972; Am. Ord. 810, § 1C, passed -- 1998)
9.44.070 HAWKERS AND PEDDLERS.
It is unlawful for any person within the City to sell, advertise, or invite patronage for anything by public outcry or by use of any type of noise-making or sound amplification device.
(Ord. 413, § 5 (part), passed -- 1972)
9.44.080 EXCEPTIONS GRANTED WHEN.
The City Council may grant an exception to § 9.44.070 if, after application and review, it finds that the circumstances are such that an exception is warranted. The circumstances must be such that the same exception would be appropriate for any other hawker or peddler in the same situation. In granting an exception, the City Council may specify any special requirements, routes, time schedules, or other standards which it deems necessary to carry out the intent of this chapter and protect the public welfare.
(Ord. 413, § 5 (part), passed -- 1972)
9.44.090 STANDARDS OF ENFORCEMENT.
In enforcing the provisions of this chapter, the enforcing officer shall utilize, but not be limited to, the following general standards:
A. The volume, intensity, and duration of the noise;
B. Whether the nature of the noise is usual or unusual;
C. The nature and zoning of the area within which the noise emanates;
D. The time of the day or night the noise occurs; and
E. Whether the noise is recurrent, intermittent, or constant.
(Ord. 413, § 6, passed -- 1972)
9.44.100 EXCEPTIONS TO CHAPTER.
The provisions of this chapter shall have no application to the sounding of a siren or the making of other usual signal or signals by any police or other peace officers in the performance of their duties, nor to the sounding of any siren upon any ambulance or firefighting equipment in the usual and customary manner.
(Ord. 413, § 7, passed -- 1972)