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

Section 12.10.080 of the National City Municipal Code governs loudspeakers and other sound amplifying equipment. Outdoors, in a residential or commercial zone, no one can use or operate a loudspeaker, loudspeaker system or similar device between nine p.m. and eight a.m. At any other hour the equipment still cannot violate the noise level provisions of Section 12.06.020. Subsection C separately makes it unlawful to operate any sound amplifying equipment that lacks an operable volume limiting control device or switch. An exception issued under Chapter 12.16 for environmental noise lifts the hour restriction.

Section 12.04.620 defines the term broadly: any machine or device using electronic, mechanical or combination means to amplify the human voice, music or any other sound, including handheld or portable loudspeakers and remotely located loudspeakers attached to or operated from a vehicle. Standard automotive audio systems installed as factory or dealer original equipment are excluded, along with emergency vehicle warning devices and traffic horns. Section 12.10.090 also bans using sound-amplifying equipment to project telephone sound to any outdoor area.

Section 12.10.060 adds a public space limit for radios and instruments: sound cannot exceed the Table III public space level measured at a distance of at least twenty-five feet from a device operating on a public right-of-way or in a public space. That level is 50 dB(A) from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and 60 dB(A) from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and music has five dB taken off under Section 12.06.040.

Sound trucks follow Chapter 12.14. Operation requires a sound truck operating license, certified by the police department and issued by the city treasurer for no more than thirty days unless council action says otherwise. Under Section 12.14.220 only music or human speech is permitted, operation is prohibited after nine p.m. and before eight a.m., equipment cannot operate within one hundred yards of hospitals, schools or churches, and volume cannot exceed sixty-five dBA at fifty feet, or fifty dBA when stopped for more than one minute. Outdoor events under a Chapter 15.60 permit are exempt under Section 12.12.040.