Houston Doubles Noise Violation Fine

Recent updates to Houston’s noise ordinance seek to curb complaints from neighbors of bars and clubs, which rose sharply this year, up 44 percent between January and March of 2022. As Dylan McGuinness reports in the Houston Chronicle, the updated ordinance doubles the fine for noise violations and adds new permitting rules for amplified sound. 

“The rules, passed by City Council in May, marked a compromise city officials said was necessary to balance competing interests: a boisterous nightlife scene and residents fed up with late-night music piping into their nearby homes,” McGuinness writes.

According to the article, “The measurement for those noise volumes would be taken from the property of any resident who calls police, under the ordinance. Officers would have to take a decibel reading with a certified sound meter to cite a business.”

Noise pollution is increasingly being recognized as a significant detriment to public health, and other cities, such as Paris and New York, are experimenting with automated enforcement using cameras and decibel meters to measure noise and identify violators.