Gulf Shores Adopts New Noise Ordinance
By Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
September 13, 2025
GULF SHORES, Ala. After several discussions and doing some research on various volumes of noise, the city council unanimously approved an amendment to the city’s noise ordinance to enforce quiet times and maximum decibel levels.
When determining normal levels of noise and levels that are unreasonable and disturbing to others, the city council set a baseline for the average ambient volume.
The council also heard from the Interim Police Chief Dan Netemeyer during a work session about decibels, the unit of measurement for volume.
The Chief stated that this summer, the average range was measured between 34 to 54.
Noise levels can be quite a bitter louder near the beachfront than in other areas of the city.
For reference, a 1-foot wave on the beach is 65 decibels, a person talking into a microphone is about 71 decibels, and an advertisement plane at the beach is 74 decibels.
“I just want to point out: just because someone can hear something doesn’t make it unreasonable,” he said. “Unreasonable is excessive; unreasonable is uncomfortable; unreasonable is disturbing.”
The Chief said that the main goal of the ordinance amendment is to establish quiet hours throughout the city, define “reasonable” by enacting decibel limitations, and establish exceptions.
The council voted to suspend the rules of procedure and unanimously approved the ordinance at the September 8th meeting, where the ordinance went into effect immediately.
The new ordinance now makes acceptable decibel levels during non-quiet hours of the day in a residential area; it has been set at 65 decibels outdoors and 50 decibels indoors. In a commercial area: 75 decibels outside and 60 decibels inside.
During quiet hours, the ordinance requires a maximum of 50 decibels outdoors and 35 decibels indoors in a residential area. In a commercial area, it requires a maximum of 55 decibels inside and 40 outside.
The affected hours are the same throughout the city. From Monday to Thursday, quiet hours are from midnight to 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight. On Friday, they’re midnight to 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. to midnight. On Saturday and Sunday, midnight to 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. to midnight. On city-recognized holidays, midnight to 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight.
Exceptions to decibel limitations include permitted construction, back-up alarms on vehicles, emergency vehicles, emergency-related work, a “noise of temporary duration as permitted by the city” such as concerts or events, flying aircraft, religious services, crowd noises from events, sanitation vehicles, road construction projects and other exceptions as approved by permit.
Other exceptions, which Netemeyer said don’t immediately apply to Gulf Shores but could potentially include agriculture, activities with proper muffler in use, and controlled detonations on construction sites and quarries.
The city is growing, and that means more people, more activities, more construction, and of course, more noise.
The penalty for violating the ordinance on the first offense is a $500 fine. The second offense or any two violations in a six-month period has the penalty of a Class A misdemeanor: up to $2.000 fine, up to 60 days in jail, or both.
Netemeyer said these are not much different from penalties for violating other ordinances. Warnings are allowed but are up to the discretion of the officer at the scene. Officers can also can self-enforce and don’t have to wait for a complainant to get a decibel reading of an area.
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