Mesquite, TX – March 17, 2021 – On March 15, the Mesquite City Council approved updates to the City Code to provide new tools to address noise complaints.
Mayor Bruce Archer said, “Too often there are those in our city who simply have no thought or regard for their neighbors and don’t care about the misery and suffering caused by hours of late night parties and music that causes homes to literally vibrate down the street. This ordinance won’t fix everything overnight, but it will give our police department more tools in their toolbox to better resolve these disturbances and give more residents hope that they don’t have to keep enduring these problems. We have to do more.”
The amended ordinance includes:
- Allowing city staff to address complaints of noises that are plainly audible under certain circumstances and locations, for example at a property line or from the street, which will allow for a more common-sense approach and eliminating the need for a decibel meter or witness to enforce.
- Establishing new noise zones of residential, commercial, manufacturing and entertainment properties making it more effective for the city to investigate a complaint and enforce the ordinance.
- Updating the daytime and nighttime maximum permissible sound levels to correspond with other metroplex cities.
- Clarifying nuisance standards language to identify noise that is in violation if it “annoys, distresses, or disturbs the quiet, comfort, or repose of a reasonable person with ordinary sensibilities.”
- Including temporary exceptions for special events permitted by the City.
- Allowing for noise variance processes and noise abatement studies to be ordered under specific circumstances when there is the potential for a noise disturbance or when an existing facility perpetually exceeds the maximum permissible sound levels.
Violations of the noise ordinance are a Class C Misdemeanor criminal offense and subject to a maximum of $2,000. City staff will educate residents on how to file a noise complaint that includes a complaining witness and a recording to authenticate the nuisance when the city is not able to witness the violation.