Bethlehem, PA Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

Section 717.01(a) makes 'unnecessary noise' from a person, animal, musical instrument, or amplifying system a public nuisance across the City, with no time-of-day limit built into the base rule; the prohibition covers noise that endangers or injures health or property, or that annoys a reasonable person of normal sensitivities, at any hour. The one clock-based restriction in the Article sits in the exceptions list at subsection (b)(5): tools and equipment used in construction, drilling, or demolition work are excused from the general noise ban, but only if the work does not occur between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., unless the operator first obtains a special permit from the Community and Economic Development Director or a designated representative.

Outside that construction window, Bethlehem relies on the general nuisance standard rather than a blanket residential quiet-hours rule; a resident running noise loud enough to disturb a neighbor at 2:00 a.m. is already covered by subsection (a) without needing a separate curfew section. Peddlers face their own, narrower clock restriction in Section 717.02: no crying of wares before 7:00 a.m. or after 10:00 p.m., or at all on Sunday.