St. Petersburg, FL Noise from Specific Sources: Bar & Nightclub Noise (2026)

Section 11-53(4)b sets the rule for the outdoor space at a business in St. Petersburg where making sound is not the principal use of the property. The code's own example is the outdoor deck of a restaurant, and the same paragraph reaches a bar patio. Between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., no radio, musical instrument, drum, phonograph, sound amplifier or other sound-producing device there can be plainly audible to any person 1,000 feet or more from the source. On Fridays, Saturdays and the days before a national holiday, that window runs to 12:00 midnight. The code labels this an exception to subsection (4)a, which sets a 100-foot limit from 11:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. for outdoor places in a nonresidential zoning district, so the 100-foot limit takes over after the cutoff. Operators are also told to orient outdoor speakers away from residential properties, or in the direction that reduces the sound reaching the closest residential properties.

The test is human hearing, not a meter. Section 11-47 defines plainly audible as sound that a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities can hear with unaided hearing, states that measurement standards are the auditory senses, says words or phrases need not be discernible, and counts low frequency reverberations. A venue whose primary lawful permitted use of that outdoor portion is making sound, such as a performance venue, falls under (4)c at 3,000 feet in the same daytime hours. An outdoor place at a residential use falls under (4)d at 500 feet, and any outdoor place in a residential zoning district drops to 25 feet overnight under (4)e.

Under (4)f, sound is outdoor whenever the speakers are not inside a structure fully enclosed by walls and a roof with all doors and windows closed. Indoor sound falls under § 11-53(3): in a nonresidential zoning district it cannot be plainly audible 100 feet or more from the building between 11:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., doors cannot be propped or locked open if that increases the sound leaving the building, and indoor speakers within 20 feet of a doorway onto a right-of-way must face away from it. Sidewalk café speakers under § 11-53(5) are capped at 200 feet from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and 50 feet from 11:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. Under § 11-47, a business violation reaches the manager or person in charge at the time.