Amherst, NY Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Section 138-5H folds car alarms into Amherst's broader burglar-alarm rule: any audible burglar alarm, building or motor vehicle, becomes a chapter violation the moment it runs past 10 minutes from first activation, regardless of how loud it is. Because the ten-minute cutoff is a duration test rather than a decibel test, it applies even to an alarm quieter than the numeric limits in Table I; conversely, § 138-5P(2) expressly exempts alarms defined in § 138-5H from the stationary-noise-source dBA table, so the decibel schedule that governs HVAC units, generators and other fixed equipment never applies to a car alarm.

Amherst's noise chapter cross-references Chapter 65, Alarms, in its general references, which separately addresses alarm-system permitting and false-alarm response; § 138-5H is the noise-specific backstop that targets the nuisance of a car alarm that will not stop rather than the alarm-permit system itself. Enforcement runs through the Amherst Police Department under § 138-7B, the same department that responds to the underlying burglary alert, and a violation is punished under the chapter's general penalty clause, § 138-8: a fine of up to $250, imprisonment of up to 15 days, or both, with each day of a continuing violation counted as a separate offense.

Because most car alarms self-silence or are manually disarmed well inside 10 minutes, an enforceable § 138-5H violation in practice means a malfunctioning alarm the owner has not disabled.