New Beaufort County law will fine, jail drivers for ‘obnoxious’ noise. What it says
A new Beaufort County ordinance allows sheriff’s deputies to issue penalties for drivers who rev their vehicle engines or emit “obnoxious” noises in unincorporated parts of the county.
“Residents and visitors of Beaufort County have a right to the peaceful enjoyment of their property and without exposure to loud, obnoxious, unnecessary, or excessive vehicular noises,” the ordinance says.
Beaufort County Council approved the ordinance 9-2 on final reading Monday night — months after it was proposed in March.
According to the rules, a loud vehicle noise that disturbs “the peaceful enjoyment of private and public property” in unincorporated Beaufort County will be considered a public nuisance subject to a fine and/or a maximum of 30 days in prison.
But, called on Tuesday, Beaufort County Sheriff PJ Tanner said he had not seen the ordinance and did not know council was considering it Monday other than a “brief discussion” over a year ago.
“I need to review it,” he said. “I don’t know enough about the ordinance because we haven’t been a part of the creation of it. I would’ve loved to have been a little more involved so we could look at it before it was signed.”
Tanner said his deputies aren’t equipped with decibel readers to measure noise levels.
“It sounds like there’s a lot that needs to be looked at in terms of the enforceability of the ordinance,” he said.
Monday’s vote came as a result of citizens who complained about loud vehicles near their homes.
However, before voting against the ordinance, Council member Mike Covert called the rules “arbitrary and capricious.”
In his speech against the new law, Covert cited Cannon and Allen v. City of Sarasota, Florida — a lawsuit filed in 2009 in which the American Civil Liberties Union asked a court to rule unconstitutional a city ordinance that allowed police to seize and impound vehicles when drivers were charged with playing music too loud.
In 2010, the ACLU announced the case was settled for $50,000 with an agreement that the city would no longer enforce the ordinance.
Covert, however, said he believes Beaufort County’s ordinance is constitutional.
Beaufort County’s ordinance does not say police can impound someone’s vehicle for violating the noise rules.
In 2014, the town of Bluffton approved a noise ordinance with penalties similar to Beaufort County’s. However, Bluffton’s rules are more specific than the county’s regarding the nature of each violation.
The punishments for Beaufort County’s rules will be enforced by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and Beaufort County Code Enforcement officers, according to the ordinance.
“Loud, obnoxious, unnecessary or excessive noise,” the ordinance says, is defined as:
- Tire “burn-outs”
- Excessive acceleration or deceleration while in motion where there is no emergency
- Rapid acceleration by quick “up shifting” of transmission gears
- Rapid deceleration by quick “downshifting” of transmission gears
- Racing or revving engines
- Intentionally applying unnecessarily excessive acceleration from a stationary position
- Vehicle noise that exceeds more than 92 decibels when measured 20 inches from the exhaust pipe at a 45-degree angle while the vehicle is operating at idle
- Operating a vehicle with an improper muffler
- A sound system that disrupts “the quiet, peaceful enjoyment of private or public property”
The ordinance clarifies that it does not apply to the “sound of freedom” from airplanes at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort, “normal” sounds from motorcycles, loud vehicle horns or fire and EMS vehicles.
Officers may exercise judgment when enforcing the ordinance based on:
- The intensity of the noise
- If the nature of the noise is “usual or unusual”
- If the origin of the noise is natural or man-made
- The volume and intensity of any background noise
- The proximity of the noise to residential homes
- The nature and zoning of the area
- The time of day when the noise occurs
- The duration of the noise
- If the noise is recurrent, intermittent or constant
- Any other factors that disturb the “quiet and peaceful enjoyment of public or private property.”
