Independence, MO Short-Term Rentals: Noise Rules (2026)

Section 14-424-17 of the Unified Development Ordinance requires every short-term rental to 'maintain a noise management plan,' and spells out what that plan has to include: 'the continuous operation of noise monitoring device(s) while the registered property is rented,' plus the posting, 'in a prominent location inside the short-term rental,' of the property's quiet hours and the penalties for violating the City's noise ordinance. A host cannot just promise to keep things quiet; a working monitoring device has to run for the entire time the property is booked.

The noise plan is baked into the licensing process, not an afterthought. Section 14-424-22 requires an applicant to submit the noise management plan as part of the short-term rental application package before a license issues, alongside the trash disposal and collection plan. Once the rental is operating, Section 14-424-16 requires the noise management plan, along with the maximum occupancy, evacuation plan and parking plan, to be posted inside the dwelling where guests can see it.

The noise plan works alongside the City's separate ban on using a short-term rental for large gatherings. Section 14-424-10 prohibits short-term rentals from hosting 'weddings, banquets, parties, charitable fundraising, or other similar gatherings,' while still allowing small, informal, noncommercial get-togethers of a guest's family and friends, but only if the gathering doesn't disturb the surrounding neighborhood with parking or noise problems.