Kings County, CA Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

Kings County regulates noise through a nuisance standard rather than numeric quiet hours. Section 15-211 of the County Code prohibits any person from making, suffering, or permitting on property they own, occupy, or control any noise that is physically annoying to persons of ordinary sensitivity, or so harsh, prolonged, unnatural, or unusual in use, time, or place as to cause discomfort to neighbors, interfere with the comfortable use and enjoyment of life or property, or constitute a public or private nuisance, within unincorporated county territory. Because the test turns on the noise being unreasonable for its time and place, late-night disturbances are more likely to be deemed violations even though no specific cutoff hour (such as 10:00 p.m.) is written into the code. The ordinance grew out of a 1998 loud-party measure (Ord. No. 574). Under Sections 15-212 and 15-213, when the Sheriff responds to a loud or unruly party or assemblage and finds a violation, the responsible party is warned in writing and can be billed for the cost of additional law-enforcement responses if the noise continues. Incorporated cities such as Hanford, Lemoore, Corcoran, and Avenal set their own quiet-hours rules and are not covered here.