Farmington Hills, MI Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Section 18-172, added by Ordinance No. C-14-04 in 2004, is part of Article V, "Offenses Against Public Peace," alongside the city's disturbing-the-peace and construction-noise sections. It bans possessing or controlling a parked or moving vehicle equipped with a stereo, disc player, cassette player, speakers or other similar equipment producing sound at a level, volume, intensity or frequency perceptible at 50 feet or more, whether the sound is heard by the human ear or felt as vibration. The 50-foot perceptibility test applies on a street, driveway, publicly patrolled parking lot or public place, so it reaches car audio in commercial lots and roadways alike, not just moving traffic.

The section carves out three specific exemptions: sound from emergency vehicles, ice cream vending vehicles, and publicly sponsored or permitted concerts, sporting events, activities or gatherings. Unlike the general disturbing-the-peace section (Sec. 18-161), which turns on whether a listener is unreasonably annoyed, Sec. 18-172 uses an objective distance-based test: an officer measuring or judging audibility or felt vibration at 50 feet does not need to show that anyone was actually disturbed. The section carries no penalty clause of its own, so a violation falls under the Code's general misdemeanor penalty in Sec. 1-13.