Marietta, GA Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Chapter 10-6 of the Marietta Code sets numeric sound-level limits in § 10-6-030, but § 10-6-040 exempts several categories of noise from those limits entirely, including public-safety sirens, emergency work and school performances. Automobile alarms are one of the ten listed exemptions, but the exemption in § 10-6-040(B)(3) is conditional: an automobile alarm is exempt from the Table 1 sound-level limits only provided the alarm terminates its operation within five continuous minutes of activation if the sound is not intermittent, or ten continuous minutes if it is intermittent.

An alarm that keeps sounding past that window loses its exemption and becomes an ordinary noise disturbance measured against the property-line limits in § 10-6-030 (65 dBA by day, 60 dBA at night, for residential and commercial property). The same five/ten-minute structure applies to burglar alarms on buildings under § 10-6-040(B)(2), so Marietta treats vehicle and building alarms the same way: a brief alert is fine, a runaway alarm is not. Enforcement runs through the noise control administrator, the police chief or a designee under § 10-6-060, and noise control officers under § 10-6-070, who can issue a citation to Municipal Court of Marietta once an alarm passes its exempt window and a property-line reading confirms it exceeds Table 1.