Residents urge Moab City Council to enforce noise ordinance, cite health impacts

Two residents told the Moab City Council on May 13 that rising noise levels in Moab are degrading their quality of life and urged the city to enforce its noise ordinance.

At the council's public‑comment period, a resident identified only as Sarah said the “increasing noise levels in Moab degrade my quality of life” and described health effects she attributed to unwanted sound, including anxiety and elevated blood pressure. Sarah told the council she had consulted the city's noise ordinance and state law and asked for active enforcement. “No person shall operate a vehicle on a public roadway in such a manner that is plainly audible at a distance of 1,000 feet or more in any direction from a vehicle,” she read from the ordinance during her remarks.

Sarah also said the city ordinance lists examples where “plainly audible” is sufficient to cite a violation and noted that a noise violation is a class B misdemeanor under local code. Another speaker during public comment, who did not give a full name, said: “I agree with Pete, and go a little further. I can't bear to live here, and I could not bear to leave,” calling the noise “a violent intrusion into the beautiful natural sounds.”

The speakers asked the council for stepped‑up enforcement targeted at sources they described — illegally muffled vehicles and loud off‑highway vehicles audible from long distances — and said the city and state law provide tools to act. Sarah said she had heard vehicles from well over 1,000 feet away on a recent walk and urged the council to “please get some noise enforcement.”

These remarks occurred during the public‑comment portion of the May 13 meeting; no formal action or response from councilors or staff was recorded in the meeting transcript on specific next steps. The council's meeting packet and staff materials cited during the meeting include the city noise ordinance and references to Utah code provisions on off‑highway vehicle operation, but the council did not vote on any noise‑specific enforcement measure during this session.

Council members and staff thanked the speakers after public comment closed. The transcript shows no subsequent agenda item at the same meeting that directed staff to change enforcement practice or to prepare an ordinance amendment; any follow‑up would require separate council direction or an agenda item at a future meeting.