Pismo Beach, CA Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Chapter 9.20, Automobile Sound Systems, holds the stereo rule. Under § 9.20.010(A) no driver or person in possession of a vehicle can operate or permit the operation of any sound amplification system that can be heard outside the vehicle from fifty or more feet while the vehicle is parked on any highway or public owned parking lot or place. The one exception in that sentence is a system operated to request assistance or warn of a hazardous situation. Authorized emergency vehicles and vehicles operated by gas, electric, communications or water utilities are exempt, and so are vehicle sound systems in parades or special events unless other sections of the code prohibit them.

Section 9.24.080 in the Noise Control chapter covers vehicles more broadly. Refuse collection vehicles cannot collect refuse between seven p.m. and six-thirty a.m. within or adjacent to a residential area. Motorized recreational vehicles operated off the public right-of-way, including commercial or noncommercial racing vehicles, motorcycles, go-carts, amphibious craft, campers, snowmobiles and dune buggies, whether or not licensed and registered, cannot exceed the sound levels of § 9.24.060; motorboats are not included. Repairing, rebuilding, modifying or testing any motor vehicle, motorboat or aircraft in a way that creates a noise disturbance across a residential real property line is prohibited, though the code says it does not regulate aircraft movement conducted under federal law.

Subsection D sets the idling rule for heavy vehicles: a motor vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating over ten thousand pounds, or its attached auxiliary equipment, cannot run longer than fifteen minutes in any hour while stationary, except for traffic congestion, on a public right-of-way or public space within one hundred fifty feet of a residential area between ten p.m. and seven a.m.

The building official and the police department administer the noise program under § 9.24.030. A noise disturbance plainly audible at fifty feet from the noisemaker is prohibited by § 9.24.050(A).