City staff will draft revisions to the city’s noise ordinance after receiving direction from the St. Pete Beach City Commission to pursue a combined approach: retain absolute decibel limits and add a relative, receiving-property standard that compares a sound source to background ambient levels.

Planner Brandon Berry presented the concepts and said staff explored lowering the absolute receiving limits and a plainly-audible standard used elsewhere, but encountered enforcement and technical issues. Berry recommended a combined approach that pairs commonly measured absolute limits (the city currently uses 65 dB daytime / 55 dB nighttime) with a relative rule — for example, prohibiting a single sound source from exceeding the ambient level at a complainant’s property by more than a specified decibel difference. Berry cited Naples as an example where an absolute limit is paired with a maximum increment above ambient.

Operational details and enforcement: Berry described a typical enforcement technique: code officers take a baseline (background) reading at the complainant’s property, then approach the alleged source, ask that it stop for a short interval, and retake the baseline to measure the difference. "They take the source present and then the background rating…they use that as justification," Berry said. The commission discussed a 5-decibel differential as a starting point; speakers noted that a 5 dB increase represents a perceptible, near-exponential increase in loudness and agreed the number is not linearly small.

Scope, hours and exemptions: Staff proposed enforcing the relative standard mainly during wind-down hours (staff proposed beginning enforcement at 7 p.m. through 7 a.m., extending the current 10 p.m. start to account for earlier evening impacts). The commission signaled support for including day-evening wind-down hours but asked staff to expect public feedback on the 7 p.m. start. The draft will exempt permitted special events and city-approved programming when those permits include noise conditions; staff also proposed standard technical conditions for outdoor music conditional-use permits (for example, lockboxes for volume controls and decibel monitoring) so applicants understand expectations up front.

Equipment, training and interagency operations: Commissioners asked about decibel meter availability and calibration. Staff said the city has two meters (one shared with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office) and that deputies and code staff receive training from the sheriff’s office. The commission asked staff to confirm meter calibration, citation procedures, and the process for escalating code violations to special magistrate or permit-review procedures when permits are implicated.

Outcome and next steps: Commissioners agreed by consensus to have staff draft ordinance language implementing the combined absolute/relative standard, to address enforcement procedures and to standardize technical permit conditions. No final ordinance was adopted at the meeting; staff will return with language for formal consideration and public input.