Alameda, CA Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

Section 4-10.5(b)(1) prohibits operating or playing, for noncommercial purposes, any radio, television set, phonograph, drum, musical instrument or similar device in a way that creates a noise disturbance, a term defined in Section 4-10.2 as sound that endangers health or annoys a reasonable person of normal sensitivity, weighing factors like proximity to residential sleeping areas, the time of day, and whether the sound carries two hundred feet in daytime or one hundred feet at night. A separate, distance-based rule in Section 4-10.5(b)(9) targets amplified sound in public: operating a vehicle or portable radio, tape or disc device in a public place so that it is audible fifty feet from the device is itself a violation, no noise disturbance finding required.

Both provisions sit outside the numeric decibel tables in Section 4-10.4, so the City does not need a sound meter reading to cite a loud car stereo or a backyard speaker; a Planning Department or Public Works Department investigation of a complaint under Section 4-10.8 can proceed on the disturbance or the fifty-foot audibility test alone. The Emergency and warning-device exceptions in Section 4-10.7 do not extend to nonemergency amplified music.