Margate, FL Noise from Specific Sources: Low-Frequency Bass Limits (2026)

Margate's test for amplified sound is audibility, not a frequency measurement. Section 33-79(b) makes it a violation to operate or permit any radio receiving set, musical instrument, television, phonograph, drum or other device for producing or reproducing sound in a manner that causes a noise disturbance and disturbs the peace, quiet and comfort of the neighborhood. It separately bars operating any such device so that it is plainly audible across property boundaries or through partitions common to two parties within a building. For a device in a motor vehicle parked on a public right-of-way or public space, or in a motor boat, the distance test is 50 feet.

Section 33-76 defines plainly audible noise as noise whose information content is unambiguously communicated to the listener, such as understandable spoken speech, comprehension of whether a voice is raised or normal, or comprehensible musical rhythms. That last phrase is what reaches a beat carried across a fence line or a parking lot. Subsection (c) handles exterior loudspeakers and mechanical devices mounted outside a building or on a motor vehicle: they are barred when the sound is plainly audible at or beyond the property boundary of the source or on a public way.

Section 33-82 adds numeric caps by district: 55 dBA at night and 60 dBA by day in residential districts, measured with an A-weighting sound level meter under Section 33-86. The Margate Police Department administers the code under Section 33-77. The city commission alone can approve a public event that would otherwise break the code, under Section 33-90, for a specific location, time and date.