Quiet hours in Clay County, MO — also called the noise ordinance, nighttime noise rules, or residential quiet time — define the hours during which excessive noise is prohibited.
Clay County cities set their own quiet hours, generally 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Beneath every city and the unincorporated county sits Missouri's peace disturbance law, RSMo 574.010, which makes unreasonable loud noise a Class B misdemeanor.
Missouri fixes no statewide decibel limit, so quiet hours in Clay County come from each city. Liberty, Gladstone, Excelsior Springs, Kearney, and Smithville handle disturbing noise through their nuisance and peace-disturbance ordinances, with nighttime the focus for complaints. In the part of Kansas City north of the river, the city's Chapter 46 noise code adds measured decibel limits. Across unincorporated north Clay County, which the county does not blanket with a noise ordinance, the Clay County Sheriff enforces the state statute, RSMo 574.010, which makes unreasonable loud noise that disturbs a person or neighborhood a Class B misdemeanor.
Peace disturbance under RSMo 574.010 is a Class B misdemeanor, up to $500 and six months in jail on a first conviction. City noise-ordinance fines are set by municipal court.
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