Margate, FL Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

Table I in Section 33-82(a) makes it unlawful within the listed use districts for a sound or noise source to exceed the maximum noise levels. Residential districts are held to 55 dBA from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. and 60 dBA from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Commercial-agricultural districts are held to 60 dBA at night and 65 dBA by day. Industrial districts are held to 65 dBA at night and 70 dBA by day. Under subsection (b), when a noise source can be identified and measured in more than one use district, the limits of the most restrictive district apply at that district boundary.

Subsection (c) adjusts the limit for sounds that are not steady: a source operating continuously one minute or less in any hour gets +15 dB(A), five minutes or less gets +10, and fifteen minutes or less gets +5, applying one correction only. A source of repetitive impulse character, or one with a pure tone or cyclically varying amplitude, is corrected by minus 5. Section 33-86 requires measurement with a sound level meter using the A weighting scale under American National Standards Institute standards, and Section 33-76 requires a Type 2 or better meter.

Related numeric rules include Section 33-85, which bars selling, renting or leasing a new recreational vehicle in the city unless it produces no more than 82 decibels at fifty feet, Section 33-87, which bars approval of new residential construction where existing sound exceeds 65 dBA for more than twelve hours in twenty-four on a normal weekday, and Section 33-89 for new residential roads. The Margate Police Department administers the article under Section 33-77. Emergency work is exempt under Section 33-80.