Gilroy, CA Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)
Key Facts
- Curfew hours
- 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
- Covers
- vehicles, machines, appliances, gatherings, animals
- Legal standard
- noise that disturbs another person
- Exempt
- police, fire, ambulance, garbage crews
- In force since
- Ord. No. 76-22 (1976)
Summary
Gilroy City Code § 16.31 bans loud, boisterous, or unusual noise, including noise from a vehicle, that disturbs anyone in a residence, hotel, or other place used for sleeping, between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. The curfew reaches any vehicle, machine, appliance, or gathering that creates the disturbance, but exempts police, fire, ambulance, and garbage-collection work.
No person shall make any loud, boisterous, irritating, penetrating or unusual noise or own, occupy, operate or keep any business, public meeting or gathering, game, dance, amusement, appliance, contrivance, device, structure, construction, ride, machine, vehicle, implement or instrument or animal or fowl, the use, operation or keeping of which makes a loud, boisterous, irritating, penetrating or unusual noise which disturbs another in any residence, hotel, apartment house, cabin, cottage, court, rooming house or any building or place regularly used for sleeping purposes in the city, between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. of any day. ... This section shall not apply to emergency or public service activities by police, fire, garbage collection, ambulance or similar personnel.
Full Breakdown
Section 16.31 is Gilroy's general nighttime noise curfew, and it names "vehicle" specifically alongside businesses, meetings, games, dances, appliances, machines, structures, rides, and even animals or fowl as sources of noise the ordinance reaches. A car stereo, revving engine, or loud exhaust that makes a loud, boisterous, irritating, penetrating, or unusual noise heard in a residence, hotel, apartment house, cabin, cottage, court, rooming house, or any building or place regularly used for sleeping, between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., falls within the ban just as surely as a loud party or barking dog does.
The section does not set a decibel threshold; it is written around whether the noise disturbs another person during the protected sleeping hours, which gives Gilroy Police Department officers responding to a complaint discretion to judge disturbance on the facts of each call rather than a meter reading. The ordinance carves out one express exception: it does not apply to emergency or public service activities carried out by police, fire, garbage collection, ambulance, or similar personnel, so a fire engine responding at 2:00 a.m. is not a violation.
The curfew traces to Ordinance No. 76-22 of 1976 and was amended in 1981 and again in 1991, with the 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. window unchanged since.
Violations & Fines
Making or allowing loud vehicle noise, such as a stereo, engine, or exhaust, that disturbs someone in a residence or other sleeping-place between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. violates § 16.31, enforced by the Gilroy Police Department. The section does not list its own fine, so the offense falls back on the code's general enforcement framework; police, fire, ambulance, and garbage-collection vehicles are exempt regardless of the hour.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get in trouble for a loud car stereo in Gilroy at night?
Does Gilroy's nighttime noise rule set a decibel limit for vehicles?
Are emergency vehicles exempt from Gilroy's noise curfew?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Gilroy
California rules heatmap·Compare Gilroy to another location·View the California noise ordinances overview
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