A community member recently used the Submit a Service Request feature on DecaturGa.com to ask about the City’s noise ordinance. She suggested that we blog about the ordinance as a refresher for everyone, and I think that’s a great idea.
The basics of the ordinance can be found in the following table:
dB(A) stands for decibels. For the residential land use category, sounds that are above 60 decibels are not allowed between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. To give you an idea of the measurement, an air conditioner runs at about 50 dB(A) and a lawnmower is around 90 dB(A).
You can find the full ordinance on Municode here.
If there is a noise violation in progress, please call the police non-emergency number to report it, 404-373-6551.
What about the recycling trucks? There is a recycling truck that comes by Monday and Tuesday on North Candler St. VERY LOUD and wakes up my entire building every single week. Much louder than a lawn mower and lasts for about 15 minutes.
Is there no ordinance for during daytime hours? In my neighborhood some yard companies run 3 or 4 yard machines at once, producing decibels of noise that are outrageous, just to clean off a roof, mow a little grass and blow every speck of leaf from driveways and yards. Air pollution is also incredible between the amount of dust blasted into the air and the pollution from the small engines (each being greater than that of a car).