Amherst, NY Noise from Specific Sources: Delivery Truck Noise (2026)

Chapter 138 of the Amherst Town Code opens with the Town Board's finding that unreasonable noise threatens the comfort, health and welfare of residents, and it enumerates specific acts that count as violations rather than relying on a single decibel rule. m. The exemption is narrow: authorized emergency vehicles and public utility vehicles actually engaged in emergency operations are excused, but a parked delivery truck idling outside a home at midnight is not. Enforcement runs through the Amherst Police Department under § 138-7, which requires officers to use an ANSI Type II sound-level meter, calibrated at least annually, operated by Town personnel approved by the Chief of Police, when the decibel provisions of the chapter's separate land-use table are at issue; the heavy-vehicle idling rule itself is a straightforward time-and-duration test that does not require a meter reading.

Violations are prosecuted under § 138-8, and the chapter treats each day of continued idling as a separate offense, so a delivery company that lets trucks idle outside residences night after night can face repeated fines rather than a single charge.