Alexandria, VA Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

Section 11-5-4(3) of the Alexandria City Code, part of Chapter 5's noise control code, makes it unlawful for anyone to permit, operate, or cause a source of sound in their residential dwelling that is plainly audible in another person's residential dwelling with the doors and windows closed, between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. This is the general quiet-hours rule applying inside apartments, townhouses and single-family homes citywide, distinct from the outdoor amplified-sound limits in § 11-5-4.1 and the daytime decibel table in § 11-5-5.

The same subsection also restricts loading and unloading noise: outdoor truck loading or unloading within 500 feet of a residential dwelling is barred outright between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. under subsection (4), and any loading noise plainly audible across a 50-foot property boundary with doors and windows closed is unlawful at any hour.

The director of the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services administers and enforces Chapter 5 under § 11-5-8, with police assisting on request. Under § 11-5-10, an enforcement officer may first issue a written notice ordering corrective measures within a reasonable time, but § 11-5-12(c)(1)(f) allows a civil violation notice to issue even without prior warning. Violations are civil, not criminal: a first violation carries a $100 penalty, a second within seven days of the first is $250, and a third or later violation within 14 days of the first is $500, with each hour of a continuing violation counted as a separate offense.