Salem, OR Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

Salem's general nighttime quiet hours run 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. the following day and are built from several separate per se prohibitions inside SRC 93.020 rather than one single curfew clause. SRC 93.020(c) bars operating or permitting the operation of domestic power equipment, defined in SRC 93.005 to include power hand tools, lawn mowers, power blowers, garden equipment, and snow removal equipment used for home or building repair, maintenance, landscaping, alteration, or home manual arts projects, during that window. SRC 93.020(f) separately bars idling a vehicle engine for more than ten consecutive minutes in a manner plainly audible within any dwelling unit during the same hours, and SRC 93.020(g) bars repairing or testing a motor vehicle in a manner plainly audible within a dwelling during the same window.

SRC 93.020(j) extends the curfew to heavy equipment, barring the operation of any pile driver, steam shovel, pneumatic hammer, derrick, hoist, or similar equipment between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Construction and building repair carry their own parallel curfew under SRC 93.020(d), and the idling and vehicle-repair rules require the sound to be plainly audible inside a dwelling while the domestic-equipment and heavy-equipment rules apply regardless of audibility inside a structure. SRC 93.030 exempts a short list of sounds from all of these curfews, including work to restore property after a disaster, burglar or fire alarms sounding no more than ten minutes, and emergency vehicles.

A first violation of any of these quiet-hours subsections is an infraction under SRC 93.990(a), and a second violation of SRC 93.010 or 93.020 within six months of a prior conviction is a misdemeanor under SRC 93.990(b).