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

San Jacinto Municipal Code § 8.40.130 requires a permit from the police chief or a designee to install, use or operate a loudspeaker or sound-amplifying device, fixed or on a vehicle, to address people in or upon any street, alley, sidewalk, park or public property. The section also covers amplified sound on public or private property at outdoor or indoor events, whether or not admission is charged, when more than one hundred (100) persons will attend and the noise will be audible at the property plane or, for a street dance or concert, on the nearest residential property. Activities listed in § 8.40.070(A), which are authorized by public entities, are exempt.

Applications go to the police chief at least sixteen (16) days and no more than one hundred twenty (120) days before use, with a shorter period possible for First Amendment events when circumstances require it. The application names owner and user, describes the equipment, gives dates, times and locations, names a person present with authority to reduce volume, and includes a sketch. The chief decides within five days. Grounds for denial include false information, a hazardous premises, inadequate on-site parking, traffic or pedestrian safety conflicts, a prior permitted event within a two hundred (200) yard radius within three months on residentially zoned property or a street, alley, public parking lot or neighborhood park, and violations by the applicant or location in the past calendar year.

A denied applicant appeals to the city manager through the city clerk within ten (10) calendar days. The hearing is set within ten (10) calendar days of the appeal, with written notice mailed at least five calendar days before, and the decision follows within ten (10) calendar days and can be reviewed under Code of Civil Procedure Sections 1094.5 and 1094.8. Subsection H sets the operating rules: only music and human speech, no sound within one hundred (100) yards of hospitals, churches, schools and City Hall, not audible beyond one hundred (100) feet, and no use between eight p.m. and eight a.m. Under § 8.40.120, personal-use devices heard only inside a building or by vehicle occupants are not sound-amplifying equipment, and party music at a residence falls under § 8.40.080.