Fountain Valley, CA Noise from Specific Sources: Delivery Truck Noise (2026)

Fountain Valley Municipal Code § 6.28.148, titled Commercial delivery prohibition, sits in Chapter 6.28, the noise chapter. It reaches deliveries of goods, merchandise, material, equipment, meat, poultry, fish, groceries, dairy products, foodstuffs, food or beverage. The verbs are broad: no person shall make, cause, accept or permit a delivery, so both the carrier and the business receiving the goods are exposed. The zone is one hundred feet of residentially zoned property. The hours are ten p.m. to seven a.m. every night, plus the whole of any Sunday or legal holiday.

The standard is that the delivery disturbs the peace and quiet of any reasonable person of normal sensitivity residing in the area, and the section sets no decibel limit. Proof can come from the testimony of a peace officer, a code enforcement officer, or any other person, which means a neighbor's account can carry the case. The definition of delivery is wide. It is not only the completed hand-off but all preparatory and related steps within the one hundred-foot distance, including driving, stopping, idling or parking a vehicle, opening or shutting doors, and moving pallets, dollies, floor jacks or lifts.

The clock therefore starts when the truck enters the buffer, not when the first box comes off. Two neighboring rules apply in the same chapter. Section 6.28.147 limits idling to ten minutes at night, and § 6.28.149 bars parking lot sweepers within one hundred feet of a residential area except from eight a.m. to six p.m. Monday through Friday and nine a.m. to six p.m. on Saturday, never on Sunday. Under § 6.28.110 the county health officer and authorized representatives enforce the chapter, and § 6.28.120 offers a variance for a seventy-five dollar application fee.