Twin Falls, ID Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

Chapter 11 of Title 3 of the Twin Falls City Code defines a sound truck as any motor vehicle or other vehicle with sound amplifying equipment mounted on or attached to it, and defines the equipment as any machine or device that amplifies the human voice, music or any other sound. Standard car radios heard only by the vehicle's occupants and emergency or traffic warning devices are carved out.

Before the amplifier runs anywhere in the city, the operator files a written registration statement in duplicate with the city clerk (§ 3-11-2). It lists the owner, the person in charge, every operator, the purpose, the sections of the city to be covered, the proposed hours, the number of days, the wattage, the volume in decibels and the approximate maximum throw distance. The clerk returns a certified copy that must be in the truck whenever the equipment operates and must be shown to any police officer on request (§ 3-11-3).

Section 3-11-4 sets the operating limits. The truck must keep moving at ten miles per hour or more unless stopped or impeded by traffic. No sound is issued within 100 yards of hospitals, schools, churches or courthouses. Operation is limited to the business and industrial districts defined by the zoning ordinance in Title 10. Amplified speech and music cannot be profane, lewd, indecent or slanderous.

A truck advertising with amplified sound also needs a license from the city clerk (§ 3-11-5): five dollars per month or fraction of a month, or twenty dollars per year if more than a month. A denied applicant has seven days after notice to appeal in writing to the Twin Falls City Council, whose order is final (§ 3-11-6). The council can revoke the license after written notice and a hearing set at least three days out (§ 3-11-7). The chapter prints no decibel ceiling of its own: the decibel figure is whatever the applicant states in the registration, and the enforceable cap is the 100-foot audibility limit.