Albemarle County, VA Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

County Code § 7-106(R) lists "warning devices" among the sounds the noise article does not prohibit: sound produced by a horn or warning device of a vehicle when used as a warning device, including back-up alarms for trucks and other equipment, is exempt outright, with no distance or time limit attached. That exemption covers a vehicle alarm or horn doing its intended job, such as a security alarm sounding to alert an owner or a truck's back-up beeper. It sits alongside the article's general rule for any other "sound producing or reproducing device" on a vehicle: § 7-105(B)(1) and (2) make it unlawful for such a device, audible 100 feet or more from the vehicle on a street or public property, or 100 feet from the parcel line (or from inside a dwelling) when the vehicle is on private property, to produce sound outside the exempt warning-device use, for instance a stereo left blasting.

Section 7-104 separately bars any sound, from a vehicle or otherwise, that causes at least a 15 dBA rise above ambient levels. Read together, the code treats a legitimate vehicle alarm or horn as an exempt safety feature rather than a punishable noise, while non-warning sound equipment on or in a vehicle remains subject to the general 100-foot and dwelling-unit standards. The Chief of Police, per § 7-101, is the Board of Supervisors' agent for enforcing whichever provision applies.