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DC Homeowners: Beware of City's New Noise Law

  • February 1st 2011

by UrbanTurf Staff

DC Homeowners: Beware of City's New Noise Law: Figure 1

DCist reports via The Georgetown Dish that a new DC law went into effect late last week that doubled existing fines and maintained that violators can be arrested for making excessive noise.

While news of this new law was brought to the attention of DC’s blogosphere last night at a Georgetown ANC meeting, enforcement will not be limited to Hoya house parties or the inebriated masses outside Third Edition. Anyone (including a home owner) in the city that a police officers deems is making excessive noise between the hours of 10pm and 7am is subject to a fine of up to $500 (doubled from $250) and can be put into jail for up to 90 days. Whether or not the person is fined or put in the slammer is up to the discretion of the officer.

If you are curious how reasonable noise levels are defined by the District here is a quick chart:

DC Homeowners: Beware of City's New Noise Law: Figure 2

So, at night, a residence can not exceed a noise level of 55 decibels. To put that into perspective, 55 decibels is essentially the level of a normal conversation or someone working at a typewriter.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc_homeowners_subject_to_citys_new_noise_law/2935.

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