• The decibel scale is exponential. A 10 point change in decibel level corresponds to a 10x change in sound intensity.

• Austin permits 10 times more nighttime noise than the next most noise-tolerant cities of Nashville & Washington DC.

• Austin's limits are 100 times Atlanta's or Denver's.

• It's time for Austin to adopt a noise ordinance more in line with other major cities.

See end for notes, sources, and methods. 

• In surveys, noise consistently ranks among the top three deteriminants of urban quality of life.

• Constant exposure to excessive noise negatively effects mental health.

• The World Health Organization has determined that noise pollution is the second largest environmental cause of health problems after air pollution.

• Children in noisy environments have slower reading development and impaired attention.

See end for sources.

• Austin's noise ordinances were passed in the 1990's, updated in 2003 and again in 2011.

• In the 1990's, Austin made a deliberate decision to support live music and outdoor entertainment venues with lax noise ordinances.

• However, as city density has increased, so have non-entertainment noise sources including: mechanical equipment (e.g., HVACs), delivery trucks, private garbage collection, and shop noise. Efforts to rein in these noise sources have been kneecapped by business owners and developers to keep regulations to a minimum.

• Austin's support for outdoor music and entertainment should serve as cover for developers to put cheap, excessively noisy HVACs in Austin's neighborhoods.

• Or -- "Aren't noise ordinances just a form of NIMBY-ism?"

• Reasonable noise limits do not impede growth. Phoenix, Dallas, Houston and Atlanta are all A/C-dependent cities that have continued to grow, despite basic noise limits.

• Since every city has adopted basic noise limits, HVAC providers now offer many cost-effective lower-noise solutions, including quieter condensers and sound barriers.

• Adding sound barriers to cut HVAC noise adds roughly 1% to the cost of a typical development. Responsible noise mitigation does not make development unaffordable.

• Will this affect homeowners or will home-builders have to install more expensive HVAC equipment? No - the noise limits discussed here pertain only to commercial properties that adjoin residential properties. This noise ordinance does not apply to individual homes or to larger commercial or industrial developments outside of residential neighborhoods.

• Some roof-mounted HVAC installations in Austin emit sound over 95 dB at the source.

• Some rooftop units far exceed the already-high Austin noise limit of 70dB at the roofline or measured on line-of-sight to the HVAC units.

• However, particular interpretations of Austin city code by the office of City Manger, T.C. Broadnax, render Austin's commercial HVAC noise limits practically meaningless. Code Enforcement has adopted the practice of measuring commercial rooftop HVAC noise at street-level, standing next to the commercial structure. Rooftop HVAC noise is naturally shielded by the building structure when measured in this way. As a result, Austin effectively has no enforced noise limits on commercial roof-mounted HVAC units. Importantly, this measurement approach is not specified in the City code -- it is the discretionary policy of the City Manager.

• Boom-mounted decibel meters or line-of-sight measurement from neighboring structures (e.g., a balcony of an adjacent apartment building, with tenant permission) do not put Code Enforcement agents at risk and could provide much more realistic assessment of noise impact on neighbors.

• Based on personal discussions with Code Enforcement, it seems that these noise policy interpretations are essentially a way to reduce workload for constrained staff. "No Violation" = no follow-up.

Please send examples of excessively loud commercial HVAC units in your neighborhood by leaving a comment below.

• In July 2024, the Planning Commission recommended a reduction in the decibel limit of mechanical equipment from 70 to 45 decibels.

• On October 10, 2024, Council Members Ryan Alter, Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez, Chito Vela, and Zo Qadri offered the Resolution below requesting that the City Manager study the impacts of noise regulations on residents and identify opportunities for improvement.

• On July 18th, the City Manager responded with the memo below. (TL;DR: the City Manager does not seem interested in more noise limit enforcement.)

• Recommendations were made based on a survey of 284 respondents (out of a city of over 1mm), which city staff, correctly, deemed too small to draw a conclusion.

• Despite the lack of any reasonable basis, City Staff recommends "outreach and education campaign as an alternative to regulatory changes" with no comment on how such a campaign would address the issues raised by the Planning Commission and City Council.

• This recommendation is consistent personal comments from Code Enforcement staff that their department is not interested in the added workload of more stringent noise enforcement.

• Action is needed at the City Council level to compel the City Manger and Code Enforcement to regulate Austin's mechanical noise.