Legislative review committee weighs expanding downtown noise rules, decibel enforcement

The Legislative Review Committee on Oct. 2 reviewed updated police data on downtown noise complaints and discussed possible changes to the city's noise ordinance that would make it easier to address amplified commercial noise in mixed-use areas.

The committee heard from Harrison Daniel, deputy chief of the police department, who presented 2025 year-to-date complaint data. "The average time that the noise complaints are coming in is about 07:29PM," Daniel said. He told the committee the most common complaint window was 8 p.m. to midnight, the average measured distance from a complaint to an alleged source was about 0.7 miles, the top single address in the downtown list (247 Pulaski) had nine complaints, and 33% of dispositions were recorded as verbal warnings while the next-largest category was unfounded complaints.

Sarah (manager's office staff) framed the policy question: the committee has already acted on language extending some rules into agricultural-residential zones and is now focusing on downtown commercial amplification and enforcement. "We have been discussing the noise ordinance here in committee," she said, and staff split the work so the committee could concentrate on commercial downtown issues.

Austin Jackson, deputy chief attorney, urged caution on constitutional grounds and described a key legal…