Stonecrest, GA Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Article VII's core rule, Sec. 18-61 and Sec. 18-63(a)-(b), bars sound plainly audible inside a sealed dwelling or a multifamily common area between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Rather than layer a second, local standard onto cars and trucks, the mayor and council carved motor vehicles out of that scheme twice: Sec. 18-63(c)(10) exempts "sound projected, emitted or transmitted from motor vehicles," pointing to O.C.G.A. § 40-6-14(a) as the controlling law, and Sec. 18-63(c)(13) separately exempts "sound from the travel of properly muffled motor vehicles on a public right-of-way." Together the two exclusions mean a stereo, engine, or exhaust note coming from a car actually moving on a Stonecrest street is a state-law question, not a city-ordinance one, so DeKalb County police officers enforcing traffic law, not Stonecrest code enforcement, are the relevant authority.

The word "properly muffled" in (c)(13) is doing real work: a vehicle with a modified or missing muffler falls outside that specific exclusion, consistent with O.C.G.A. § 40-6-14(a)'s own muffler requirement referenced in (c)(10). The exclusions apply to the article's 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. residential standard, but Sec. 18-65(d) carries the same Sec. 18-63(c) exclusion list over into commercial, industrial, and mixed-use zones "as if fully set forth in this section," so the vehicle carve-outs also cover Stonecrest's decibel-limited areas, where a stereo blasted from a parked car would otherwise be measured against the 70 dB(A) commercial and 80 dB(A) industrial ceilings.