Palm Springs code officers cite repeated noise violations at Surf Club; commission asks for living wall, monitoring and follow-up

Code enforcement officials told the Palm Springs Planning Commission that recorded sound-level data shows the Surf Club’s wave-making system and some special events have exceeded the city’s municipal noise limits, and neighbors urged stronger mitigation measures at a public hearing.

At a hearing, Mitch Nabhan, the city’s code enforcement supervisor, described how staff have been monitoring the site since it opened in fall 2024 and said measurements taken from a bike-path location immediately south of the Surf Club’s pump houses showed both compliant and noncompliant “wave profiles.” Nabhan said the city’s noise ordinance sets a 70‑decibel daytime limit (7 a.m. to 6 p.m.) that drops to 60 decibels after 6 p.m., and that the wave system was sometimes logging readings “in the plus 11 to plus 15 decibel range” above the permitted level during evening hours.

The commission heard from more than a dozen residents who live across the wash to the south. Tom Jennings of Tahquitz Creek said “we don’t want the park to fail,” but that the neighborhood has been harmed by persistent noise. Several speakers described base vibration and subwoofer bass during music events; one resident said…