Lake Jackson council amends and adopts outdoor amplified‑sound ordinance after hours of public comment

The Lake Jackson City Council voted March 16 to adopt an amended ordinance restricting outdoor amplified sound after an extended public hearing with competing testimony from downtown business owners and nearby residents. The final amendment approved by council raised the proposed decibel thresholds to 80/85 dB and added one extra hour for Friday and Saturday nights, so outdoor amplified sound must cease at midnight on those weekend nights. The motion carrying the amendment passed 5–1.

Council members and staff framed the ordinance as a tool for complaint‑driven enforcement: officers will use calibrated, court‑admissible sound meters when responding to complaints and will enforce the ordinance’s time limits if businesses play amplified sound past the cutoff. Staff and the police representative also explained a recent state change that complicates local regulation: state penal code guidance has an 85 dB presumption while a newer state health and safety provision addresses restaurant sound, creating overlapping standards that the city tried to reconcile.

Several downtown venue owners and DJs said the proposed early cutoffs and low decibel caps would threaten business revenue and take away late‑night income that many workers rely on. “Music is like a First Amendment [right]…that’s when the majority of our business comes in,” said Jacoby Smith, who identified himself as part owner of Bodega Bar and Backyard Patio. DJs and venue owners described operational adjustments — removing subwoofers, walking neighborhood streets with a meter, and promises to work with officers — and asked council either to keep the state’s 85 dB standard or to extend weekend hours.

Residents countered with accounts of repeated late‑night disturbance, sleep disruption and recordings of vulgar lyrics and bass that “boom” through windows. “We can’t even sit on our patio in the evenings,” resident Liz Cancino said, describing recorded noise she said occurred 0.7 miles from the venues. Council members noted the city’s call log and said they received many citizen complaints over an extended period; the mayor said the issue is driven by resident reports and not the council’s desire to close businesses.

Council debated several amendment packages in sequence — keeping times and the originally proposed 70/75 dB, raising decibel limits and removing time limits, or a compromise raising limits to 80/85 with an added weekend hour — before settling on the 80/85 + one‑hour compromise. Council also directed staff to monitor call logs and enforcement outcomes and to return to council for review in months if problems persist.

The ordinance language and its effective enforcement mechanism will rely on calibrated meters and complaint reports; the council did not direct new funding but asked police and city staff to track data and report back.