Marion, OH Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Car alarms in the City of Marion are handled inside Chapter 634, Noise Control, as one of the emergency signaling devices in § 634.03(D). The section opens by declaring that the acts listed are not in violation of the chapter. Division (D)(2) then covers sounding or permitting the sounding of any exterior burglar or fire alarm or any motor vehicle burglar alarm if such alarm is automatically terminated within two (2) minutes of activation, or within a reasonable time after notification of activation. The two-minute figure is the printed automatic cutoff. A separate fallback, a reasonable time after notification of activation, applies where the owner or responsible person is told the alarm is sounding.

Division (D)(3) protects the sounding of any horn or other auditory signaling device on or in any motor vehicle on any public right of way or public space, as a warning of danger. That is the carve-out that keeps a driver's warning horn from being a noise violation, while an alarm that keeps running past the cutoff falls outside the protected category.

Division (D)(1) addresses stationary emergency signaling devices such as fire, burglar or civil defense alarms, sirens and whistles. Their testing must occur at the same time of day each time, not before 6:00 a.m. or after 2:00 a.m. or the closing time of a commercial establishment, whichever occurs later, and a test cannot exceed sixty (60) seconds. Full system tests cannot exceed ten (10) minutes. Section 634.11(A) separately exempts the emission of sound to alert persons to an emergency or for emergency work.

Enforcement runs through Chapter 634. Under § 634.08, a City law enforcement officer can issue an order requiring the immediate abatement of any source of sound alleged to be in violation, and § 634.09 provides for a notice of violation unless the person is acting in good faith to comply with an abatement order.