(A) General prohibition. No person shall make or cause to be made, any distinctly and loudly audible noise that unreasonably annoys, disturbs, injures, or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace, safety, or welfare of any person or precludes their enjoyment of property or affects their property's value. This general prohibition is not limited by the specific restrictions of the following subdivisions.
(B) Horns, audible signaling devices, and the like. No person shall sound any audible signaling device on any vehicle except as a warning of danger, as required by M.S. § 169.68, as it may be amended from time to time.
(C) Exhaust. No person shall discharge the exhaust or permit the discharge of the exhaust of any steam engine, stationary internal combustion engine, motor boat, motor vehicle, or snowmobile except through a muffler or other device that effectively prevents loud or explosive noises therefrom and complies with all applicable state laws and regulations. The use of engine retarder brakes is prohibited within the city limits, except in an emergency. The city shall erect VEHICLE NOISE LAWS ENFORCED signs at the locations as they deem appropriate and shall request erection of similar signs by the MN Dept. of Transportation upon state highways entering the City of Wells.
(D) Defective vehicles or loads. No person shall use any vehicle so out of repair or so loaded as to create loud and unnecessary grating, grinding, rattling, or other noises.
(E) Radios, phonographs, paging systems, and the like. No person shall use or operate or permit the use or operation of any radio receiving set, musical instrument, phonograph, paging system, machine, or other device for the production or reproduction of sound in a distinct and loudly audible manner as to unreasonably disturb the peace, quiet and comfort of any person nearby. Operation of any set, instrument, phonograph, machine, or other device in a manner as to be plainly audible from a vehicle, at the property line of a structure or building in which it is located, in the hallway or apartment adjacent, or at a distance of 50 feet if the source is located outside a structure or building, shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of this section.
(F) Participation in noisy parties or gatherings.
(1) No person shall participate in any party or other gathering of people giving rise to noise, unreasonably disturbing the peace, quiet, or repose of another person.
(2) When a police officer determines that a gathering is creating a noise disturbance, the officer may order all persons present, other than the owner or tenant of the premises where the disturbance is occurring, to disperse immediately.
(3) No person shall refuse to leave after being ordered by a police officer to do so.
(4) Every owner or tenant of the premises who has knowledge of the disturbance shall make every reasonable effort to see that the disturbance is stopped.
(G) Schools, churches, hospitals, and the like. No person shall create any excessive noise on a street, alley, or public grounds adjacent to any school, institution of learning, church, hospital, nursing home or home for the elderly when the noise unreasonably interferes with the work within the institution or disturbs or unduly annoys its occupants or residents and when conspicuous signs indicate the presence of the institution.
(Ord. 238, passed 10-9-2000) Penalty, see § 10.99