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Village of Clemmons to study excessive-barking rule after resident complaint
Summary
A resident asked the Village of Clemmons council to consider adopting an excessive-barking ordinance similar to Winston-Salem's; council members asked staff to review the other city's rule and Forsyth County code for possible local action.
At its March 24, 2025 meeting, the Village of Clemmons council heard from a resident who urged the village to consider an excessive-barking ordinance and directed staff to review Winston-Salem's rule and Forsyth County regulations.
Derek Boone, who identified himself as a Clemmons resident, told the council his neighbor's dog barks for "hours at a time" and said calls to law enforcement produced only the answer that Forsyth County lacks an excessive-barking ordinance. "If you've ever had a dog bark for 15 minutes, that seems like an eternity," Boone said, noting Winston-Salem defines excessive barking by a 15-minute threshold.
Council members discussed Boone's complaint and asked staff to examine how Winston-Salem's ordinance might be adapted for Clemmons. An assistant manager/clerk said staff could "morph theirs into our policy and adopt it in one of our ordinances here," and council members agreed to direct staff to look into options; no ordinance was introduced or adopted at the meeting.
Later in the meeting a council member read aloud Forsyth County Code section 15-1, which defines as a violation "the keeping of any animal which by causing frequent or long continued noise shall frighten or disturb the quiet comfort and repose of any reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities in the vicinity." That member said the county language appears broad and questioned why the sheriff's office had told the resident there was no applicable ordinance.
The council's action at the meeting was a direction to staff to research the Winston-Salem ordinance and the county code and report back; no formal vote on adopting a new local ordinance occurred. Council members noted past local discussion about noise/time thresholds and said staff review should include considerations of time of day and reasonableness.
Next steps: staff were asked to investigate the language and enforcement practices used by Winston-Salem and Forsyth County and return with options for council consideration. A formal ordinance would require additional drafting and a future council action.
