Grand Forks, ND Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

Grand Forks City Code section 10-0502(2)(A) bars operating or playing any radio, television, phonograph, drum, musical instrument, sound amplifier or similar device that produces, reproduces or amplifies sound between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. the following day if the sound creates a noise disturbance across a real property boundary. The same subsection separately caps in-vehicle stereo systems: on a public right-of-way or public space, a device may not create a noise disturbance audible fifty feet from the vehicle, regardless of the hour, and a common carrier passenger's device cannot disturb other riders.

The nighttime cap does not apply to activities open to the public that hold a city council permit issued under the variance criteria in section 10-0505; the council can grant, limit in time, revoke or modify such a permit after a public hearing on twenty days' notice. Noncommercial spoken language and public assembly on public property are separately exempted from the noise article under section 10-0502(1). Enforcement runs through the Grand Forks Police Department responding to a noise-disturbance complaint; the disturbance itself, not a decibel meter reading, is the legal trigger for a residential amplified-sound citation, unlike the zoned decibel table that governs industrial and commercial noise.

Section 10-0506 sets the penalty at not more than $500, with every day a violation continues charged as a new, separate offense, and specifically exempts authorized emergency vehicles and railroad trains from the whole article.