Mount Vernon, NY Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

City Code § 178-4B(2) makes it a violation to use or operate "any radio receiving set, musical instrument, phonograph or other machine or device for the producing or reproducing of sound" in a way that unreasonably disturbs the peace, quiet and comfort of neighborhood inhabitants, or at any time louder than necessary for convenient hearing by the voluntary listeners in the room, vehicle or chamber where it plays. The section builds in a bright-line test: if the sound is "plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from the source," that alone is prima facie evidence of a violation, so a resident does not need a decibel meter to prove a case.

Subsection (3) goes further for commercial use, flatly barring any radio, musical instrument, phonograph, loudspeaker or sound amplifier used "for the purpose of commercial advertising or attracting the attention of the public to any building or structure," with no reasonableness test attached at all. Article II of Chapter 178 separately regulates sound trucks, requiring anyone operating amplified sound equipment on a vehicle for noncommercial purposes to first file a registration statement in duplicate with the City Clerk giving the operator's name and home address. 12, which bars sound at or above 95 db(A) for more than 30 seconds where spectators are located.