Monroe Township (Middlesex County), NJ Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Section 69-7B(11) of the Monroe Township Code is the only alarm-duration rule in the township's noise ordinance, and it covers both a car alarm and a building alarm. It bars sounding or permitting the sounding of any exterior burglar alarm on any building or motor vehicle unless the alarm terminates its operation within 15 minutes of being activated. The limit is a flat 15 minutes, so no decibel reading is needed and no neighbor measurement is required to prove the violation.

The wording reaches anyone who permits the alarm to keep sounding, which includes the owner of a car or building and not only the person who set it. Section 69-3 defines a person to include corporations, companies, firms and individuals, so a business with a faulty building alarm is bound the same way as a household. The article is administered by the Health Department under § 69-4A, and the Noise Control Officer issues a notice of violation under the procedures in the Monroe Township Code.

An abatement order is the other tool. Under § 69-9B the officer can require the source to be fixed within a reasonable time instead of citing it, but no abatement order issues for a willful or knowing violation or when the officer has reason to believe the order will not be obeyed. Sounds made to alert people to an emergency and sounds from emergency work are exempt under § 69-8A. Stationary emergency signaling devices are separately governed by § 69-7B(9), which incorporates N.J.A.C. 7:29-13. The Mobile Sources article in Article II, § 69-14A(2), separately limits vehicle horns, and that is a different rule from an alarm.