Grays Harbor County, WA Noise from Specific Sources: Bar & Nightclub Noise (2026)

Grays Harbor County Code Chapter 9.12, "Keeping a Disorderly House," is the county's only ordinance reaching noise generated by a bar, tavern, or nightclub operating in the unincorporated area. Section 9.12.010(A) forbids a person who keeps "any house or place of business" from suffering or permitting loud or boisterous noises, riotous or disorderly conduct, or fighting, whether inside the establishment or on adjacent property the business owns or controls; the county defines that adjacent "proximity" expressly to reach the parking lot or grounds around a bar as well as the building itself.

Rather than fixing its own decibel number for the offense, subsection (B) ties the standard to state law, defining loud or boisterous noise as anything exceeding the maximum permissible levels set under WAC 173-60. Subsection (C) makes keeping a disorderly house a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to one thousand dollars, up to ninety days in jail, or both. Because Grays Harbor County has no separate nightlife, cabaret, or amplified-sound ordinance, this chapter is the operative tool the Sheriff's Office and the prosecuting attorney's office use against a bar or nightclub whose patrons or sound system repeatedly disturb neighboring properties in the unincorporated county; a conviction attaches to the person who keeps the business, not merely to individual patrons. The severability clause in Section 9.12.020 preserves the rest of the chapter if any part is struck down.