Vancouver, WA Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

Vancouver prints no decibel cap for amplified music in its public disturbance ordinance. The operative rule is VMC 7.05.010, in Title 7, which lists sounds the city has determined to be public disturbances. Three items in that list reach amplified music.

Subsection A.1.c covers yelling, shouting, singing, and the use of noise makers, including sound amplifying equipment and air horns, within a residential district, or at any time and place in a manner so as to unreasonably disturb or interfere with the peace, comfort, and repose of owners or possessors of real property. The test is unreasonable disturbance, not a measured volume.

Subsection A.1.d covers frequent, repetitive, or continuous sounds or vibrations (infrasound) that emanate from any building, structure, apartment, condominium, or yard adjacent to it and unreasonably interfere with a neighbor's peace, comfort, and repose. The code gives sounds from musical instruments, audio sound systems, band sessions, and social gatherings as examples. The wording turns on frequency: the sound must be frequent, repetitive, or continuous.

Subsection A.1.f is the only distance figure. Sound from portable audio equipment such as tape players, radios, and compact disc players is a public disturbance when it is operated at a volume audible greater than 50 feet from the source and is not operated upon the real property of the operator. That provision does not apply to sounds from scheduled events or activities at parks and recreational facilities, such as public address systems for park or game events or concerts.

Liability reaches property holders. Under A.1, a person is guilty of public disturbance if he or she causes one or is in possession and control of property on which one occurs. Subsection B adds that the list does not exclude other acts and noises which offend the public peace.

Two other Vancouver rules cover amplified sound. VMC 15.04.070 makes it unlawful to operate or use any amplified sound system in any park without a Park and Facility Use permit issued under that chapter or a Special Event permit issued under Chapter 5.17 VMC. Chapter 5.70 governs sound trucks: noncommercial trucks must register with the city clerk, operate only between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., stay silent on Sundays and legal holidays, keep sound from being audible beyond one hundred feet, and stay within fifteen watts in the last stage of amplification. Commercial sound trucks may play music only, from nine a.m. until dusk, and from one p.m. until dusk on Sundays.