Bloomington, IN Noise from Specific Sources: Generator Noise (2026)

" The ordinance also specifies exactly how that number is measured, so enforcement is not left to a subjective reading: the sound level meter must be held at least four feet above the ground, positioned about twenty-five feet from the generator, and set on the "A" weighting network. No one besides the vendor's operators may stand within twenty-five feet of the meter during the sample, and readings must be taken while the generator is actually running. The same subsection prescribes a four-step measurement protocol, calibrating the meter within an hour before use, setting it to the A-weighted network on slow response, positioning the omnidirectional microphone at roughly a seventy-degree angle while the meter operator faces the generator and records the instantaneous reading, then recalibrating afterward.

Subsection (v)(5) separately makes it unlawful for any person to interfere, by sound or otherwise, with a city measurement in progress. 160(a), which folds the citywide noise ordinance's general reasonableness standard into vendor conduct, but the 70dBA figure itself is unique to mobile vendor generators and does not appear as a citywide zone-based limit elsewhere in the code.