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

Section 10.650.150, "Special Noise Sources," singles out several categories of noise within Ventura's broader Noise Control chapter, and subsection A addresses amplified sound equipment directly: "No person within any residential zone of the city shall use or operate any radio receiving set, musical instrument, phonograph, television set or other machine or device for the producing or reproducing of sound in such a manner as to create any noise which exceeds the noise level limits of this article." Those referenced limits come from the article's designated noise zone table in § 10.650.130, which assigns residential properties to Zone II with an exterior limit of 50 dBA between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. and 45 dBA between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., with reduced multifamily interior limits of 45 dBA daytime and 40 dBA nighttime, and an added five-decibel reduction whenever the sound "contains music or speech." Measurement follows § 10.650.140: a calibrated sound level meter using A-weighting, positioned four to five feet above ground and at least 10 feet from a reflective surface.

Section 10.650.170 exempts a narrow set of activities, including emergency alerts, warning sirens, school athletic and entertainment events, and the city's own Ventura City Hall pilot concert series under an approved sound control plan, but home stereo and instrument noise gets no blanket time-of-day exemption the way construction and domestic power tools do under §§ 10.650.150(D) and (E). A violation is enforced under § 10.650.180, which allows both the general criminal penalties of Chapter 1.150 and a civil nuisance abatement remedy, including an injunction, when the noise disturbs a resident's peace.