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

04 (Amplified Sound), makes it unlawful for anyone other than law enforcement or government personnel to install, use or operate a loudspeaker or sound amplifying equipment, whether fixed, movable or mounted on a sound truck, on a street, alley, sidewalk, park or other outdoor public property, or at any indoor or outdoor event expected to draw more than one hundred people whose noise will carry to the property plane, without first filing a registration statement approved under the article. School athletic events, graduations and indoor events in venues with over one hundred occupancy are exempt.

Applications go to the police chief, who is both the issuing and approving authority, and must be filed sixteen to one hundred twenty days before the planned use, though First Amendment events can get a shortened window if a longer one would create an unsafe delay. The chief can deny registration for traffic-safety conflicts, a prior violation at the same location within the past year, or an already-permitted event within two hundred yards in the last three months (community parks excepted). m. any other night in other zones, and the equipment cannot run more than four total hours in any twenty-four-hour period.

Speakers must be pointed away from occupied residences where feasible, and only music or human speech may be broadcast. A denied or approved application can be appealed to the city clerk within five days and is decided by the city manager within seven days.