Orlando, FL Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

Section 42.05(1) of the City Code lays out Orlando's residential noise curfew in three parts. First, subsection (a) makes it unlawful at any time to "make, maintain, create, or allow to be created any unreasonably disturbing noise that is of such character, intensity or duration as to be detrimental to the life, health, comfort or repose of any individual of ordinary sensibilities residing in or occupying the area." Second, subsection (b) bars playing a radio, phonograph, television, electronic device, musical instrument, or sound-amplification device louder than necessary for convenient hearing of the people in the room, vehicle, or chamber where it is operated.

Third, and most concretely, subsection (c) creates the nighttime bright-line rule: "The operation of any such machine, instrument, speaker, or device between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. in such a manner as to be plainly audible at a distance of 15 feet from the property line of the building or structure, or the boundary of the vehicle in which the noise is located shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of this section." The identical structure applies to multi-use property under Section 42.05(2), but the audibility distance widens to 50 feet given the mixed residential-commercial character of that zoning category.

These curfew rules stack on top of the numeric Chart 1 decibel table in Section 42.03, which independently drops the allowable residential noise level from 60 dBA/65 dBC daytime to 55 dBA/60 dBC between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Either standard, the plainly-audible test or the Chart 1 decibel ceiling, can support a citation.