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

031 of the Medina Codified Ordinances, "Using Unreasonable Sound Amplifying Devices," is the city's general noise-source ordinance. Subsection (a) bars generating or permitting unreasonable noise or loud sound likely to annoy an ordinary person, listing radios, phonographs, televisions, tape players, compact disc players, loudspeakers, horns, drums, pianos and other musical or percussion instruments as covered devices. is presumptively unlawful; in two-family and multi-family buildings, sound audible beyond the unit during those same hours is presumptively unlawful; and on streets or public property used for vehicular travel or parking, sound audible sixty feet from the source is presumptively unlawful, though permit holders and school activities are exempt from that clause.

Subsection (b) extends liability to any property owner or person in control of a premises who permits a violation there. Subsection (c) then draws the line relevant to alarms: warning and alarm devices whose purpose is to signal an unsafe or dangerous situation, or to call for police, are exempted from the section's prohibitions when used for that purpose. A car alarm sounding to warn of a break-in or tampering falls squarely within that exemption and is not itself a violation, even overnight. Violations of the underlying prohibition are a minor misdemeanor, rising to a fourth-degree misdemeanor for persistence after a warning or for a third or later conviction. (Ord. )