Highland, CA Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

Section 8.50.050 of the Highland Municipal Code, titled Controlled hours of operation, works as the city's quiet-hours rule. It makes a list of activities unlawful at any time other than between 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on any day in the industrial (I) zone, and between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on any day in all other zones. The words on any day matter: the window is the same on weekends and holidays.

The list covers home and yard activity. It includes powered model vehicles and planes, domestic power tools, machinery or any other equipment or tool used in any garage, workshop, house or other structure, and gasoline or electric-powered leaf blowers of the kind used by gardeners for cleaning lawns, yards, driveways and gutters. It also reaches privately operated street and parking lot sweepers or vacuums, electrically operated compressors and fans and similar devices, pile drivers, steam or gasoline shovels, pneumatic hammers and hoists, and ground maintenance on golf courses and contiguous tennis courts that creates a noise disturbance across a residential or commercial property line. Repairing or dismantling a vehicle or mechanical equipment in a way that is plainly audible across property lines is on the list too, as is handling garbage cans and recycling bins between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., other than city-permitted trash collection.

Sweepers have one printed exception: emergency work or work necessitated by unusual conditions can be performed with the written consent of the code enforcement officer. Section 8.50.060 exempts other categories from the chapter, including construction or repair necessary for the immediate preservation of life or property, work by public utilities under Public Utilities Commission jurisdiction, and activities on school grounds during regular hours.

In the City of Highland the city manager, chief of police and their designees enforce the chapter (§ 8.50.070). An initial violation calls for a written notice that specifies the time by which the condition must be corrected (§ 8.50.090).