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Council weighs quiet-hours rules for nightly rentals, favors applying limits to rentals rather than citywide ordinance change
Summary
After staff research and input from the sheriff's office, council debated adding quiet hours to the nuisance ordinance but signaled a preference for placing quiet-hours requirements on nightly-rental licenses instead of imposing strict citywide hours, and asked staff to consult the prosecutor on enforceability.
The Toquerville council discussed whether to add explicit quiet hours to the city nuisance ordinance following complaints about noise from nightly rentals.
Planning and zoning administrator Emily Peters said her research showed most cities do not adopt fixed quiet hours, though some do, and that the Washington County Sheriff's Office told staff that a specific time limit would make enforcement easier. "It would be easier to enforce a nuisance if there was a specific time limit," Peters said. Council members raised concerns that fixed quiet hours could be overbroad (for example, allowing loud daytime noise to evade enforcement) and that strict hours can create per se violations that may be hard to prosecute. One councilmember suggested applying quiet-hour requirements specifically to nightly-rental licenses rather than changing the general nuisance code.
Council directed staff to consult with the prosecutor about enforceability and to return with language options; members favored a targeted approach that would require nightly-rental operators to notify renters of quiet hours and include quiet-hour conditions in license requirements rather than a blanket citywide curfew.
No ordinance change was adopted at the meeting; the council asked staff to draft recommended language for future consideration.
