Rochester Hills, MI Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

Chapter 46's performance standards, adopted by Ordinance No. 636 in April 2022, apply to every use permitted under the chapter 138 zoning ordinance, covering amplified sound equipment operated on any zoned property in the city. Section 46-94 requires that noise objectionable for its intensity, frequency, or duration be muffled, attenuated, or otherwise controlled, and warns that intermittent or high-frequency sounds must be controlled even if they fall under the decibel table, particularly near loading and unloading areas next to residential districts. The numeric limits, measured at the property line or at ambient level (whichever is higher), split by time period and by the zoning of the receiving use: 65 dBA for residential and for commercial/mixed-use/institutional uses in the daytime (7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.), dropping to 50 dBA for residential at night (8:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.) while commercial/mixed-use/institutional and industrial uses stay at 65 dBA at night; industrial daytime tops out at 75 dBA.

Emergency repairs, alarms that terminate within 30 minutes, weekday construction noise between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., and bells or chimes from a building, school, or place of worship are exempt. The Code separately restricts amplified sound in specific public settings: section 74-105 bans using a loudspeaker, public address system, or amplifier within a city park except as authorized, and sections 78-97 and 78-202 bar solicitors and itinerant merchants from using amplification to draw attention to a sale or solicitation. None of chapter 46, article IV designates its violations a municipal civil infraction, so the general penalty of section 1-16 applies.