Homestead, FL Noise from Specific Sources: Bar & Nightclub Noise (2026)

Homestead's noise ordinance, codified at City Code Chapter 19, Article II (Sections 19-21 through 19-27), treats bar and nightclub noise as a business responsibility problem, not just a decibel problem. Section 19-26 puts two parties on the hook: the owner, manager, or anyone "in charge of any business premise, however temporarily," and separately any "musical performer, disc jockey or other person making a public presentation" who produces amplified sound that becomes a noise disturbance. Both can be cited independently for the same show. A noise disturbance under Section 19-22(i) is any sound so excessive it causes an adverse psychological or physiological effect or interferes with the enjoyment of life or property.

Section 19-25 sets the measurement method: officers rely on ordinary human hearing, with no microphone or hearing aid, taken at or as near as possible to the real property line, from a point not less than 50 feet from the source. A bar that wants to run louder than the code allows for a one-off show can apply under Section 19-27(c) for a temporary special-event noise permit, capped at three days, with no more than three such permits issued for the same private-property location in any 12-month period.

The city council hears the application, may attach conditions to limit neighborhood impact, and cannot deny a permit based on the content of the sound. Nonresidential applications go first to the city manager or designee, whose denial can be appealed to the city council at its next meeting.