Tigard, OR Noise from Specific Sources: Low-Frequency Bass Limits (2026)

The Tigard Municipal Code prints no separate low-frequency or bass limit, and the word bass does not appear anywhere in it. Booming stereo systems in the City of Tigard, Oregon (Washington County) are reached through the plainly audible and unnecessarily loud tests in Article V of Chapter 6.02. Under § 6.01.020, plainly audible means any sound for which the information content is unambiguously communicated to the listener, including understandable spoken speech, comprehensible musical rhythms or vocal sounds. Section 6.02.430(B) makes it unlawful to produce or permit sound that is plainly audible between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. the following day within a noise-sensitive unit that is not the source, so a neighbor who can make out the beat of music inside a bedroom at night has a complaint without any meter reading.

Section 6.02.430(C) separately bars sound that is unnecessarily loud within a noise-sensitive unit, defined in § 6.01.020 as sound that interferes with normal spoken communication or that disturbs sleep. Section 6.02.440(B)(2) lists the operation of musical instruments, loudspeakers, amplifying devices, radios, stereo systems and similar devices, including those installed in or on vehicles, among the acts that violate the article when they exceed the 6.02.430 limits, and (B)(8) adds the use or creation of amplified sound in any outdoor facility. Sound measurement is not required for enforcement (§ 6.02.420(A)).

A civil infraction action on the plainly audible or unnecessarily loud standards needs the evidence of at least two persons from different households, and a police or code enforcement officer or other city employee who witnessed the violation counts as one (§ 6.02.470(A)). The city can also ask an alleged violator to enter into a voluntary compliance agreement based on a single complaint or single witness (§ 6.02.470(B)).