Pismo Beach, CA Noise from Specific Sources: Delivery Truck Noise (2026)

Chapter 9.24 is the noise control chapter of the Pismo Beach Municipal Code. It was adopted in 1992 as Ordinance 92-23, and section 9.24.030 assigns its administration to the building official and the police department. The code never uses the words delivery truck, so two provisions reach delivery work.

The first is section 9.24.050 B 4, which covers the handling itself: loading, unloading, opening, closing or other handling of boxes, crates, containers, building materials or similar objects. The quiet window runs from ten p.m. to seven a.m. The trigger is a noise disturbance across a residential or visitor serving real property line, so a hotel or motel counts as a protected neighbor alongside a house. The same paragraph also bars the handling at any time if it violates section 9.24.060, the exterior noise limits.

The second is section 9.24.080 D, which covers the vehicle. No person may operate a motor vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating over ten thousand pounds, or any auxiliary equipment attached to it, for longer than fifteen minutes in any hour while it is stationary. Traffic congestion is the only stated excuse. The restriction applies on a public right-of-way or public space within one hundred fifty feet (forty-six meters) of a residential area, between ten p.m. and seven a.m.

Section 9.24.020 defines a noise disturbance as any sound that endangers the safety or health of people or animals, annoys or disturbs reasonable persons of normal sensitivities, endangers property, or violates the factors in section 9.24.060. Section 9.24.050 A adds a separate bar on any noise disturbance plainly audible at a distance of fifty feet from the noisemaker.

A business that needs overnight receiving can apply to the noise control office for an exception under section 9.24.100. The application must show that compliance would be an unreasonable hardship, it carries a fee set by council resolution, and an exception cannot run longer than one hundred eight days. The chief of police can grant exceptions lasting under forty-eight hours, and the community development director handles longer ones.