Ridgecrest, CA Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Section 14-52 sits in Chapter 14, Article II of the Ridgecrest City Code, the same article that requires an encroachment permit for work in the public right-of-way. It is written as a duty on "the permittee," so it binds whoever holds the Ridgecrest permit for the street or right-of-way job. The quoted text does not set hours for other kinds of construction.

The noise rule contains no decibel figure. The test is whether a tool, a piece of equipment, or a work method is "likely to produce noise of sufficient volume to disturb the sleep or repose or regular business of the occupants of adjoining properties." Because the wording turns on likelihood, the question under § 14-52 is whether the equipment is the kind that would disturb the people next door, not whether a meter reading crossed a line. The rule protects Ridgecrest businesses as well as homes, since "regular business" is listed alongside sleep and repose. The people protected are the occupants of adjoining properties, meaning the properties next to the permitted work.

The restricted window runs from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Outside those hours, § 14-52 does not apply this noise limit to permit work. Inside them, the only exception written into the section is "the case of an emergency." Section 14-52 does not define an emergency or list examples, so whether a particular night job qualifies depends on the facts of that job.

The opening sentence of § 14-52 deals with Ridgecrest's wind. The permittee must, "in view of local wind conditions, take continuous action" using whatever measures are necessary to keep dust and sand from blowing onto neighboring properties or endangering passing traffic. That duty has no hours attached, so it applies day and night while the permit work is underway. The word "continuous" means dust control done only at the start of a Ridgecrest street job does not satisfy the section if sand later starts to blow.