NOISE

You are entitled to quiet enjoyment of your home and neighborhood.

If neighbors are having a loud party that is disturbing your quiet enjoyment of your home, they are violating the Boulder municipal code noise ordinance.

• The Boulder municipal code noise ordinance has specific provisions for what noise levels are permissible at certain times of day.  

• After 11 pm,  amplified music that can be heard from more than 100 feet away (twice the typical lot widths in Boulder) is illegal.

• Note however, that even though a party may not violate these noise levels, the party may still violate your quiet enjoyment, which is an offense.

As a first resort, you may wish to call or visit your neighbors to ask them to reduce the noise level.  

If that is not possible or you do not feel comfortable doing so, call the Boulder Police at 303-441-3333.

• In reporting your complaint to dispatch you will need the address of the noise source.  Use the neighborhood map on the city's website to look up the address.

• If the party happens to be hosted by CU students, you may also wish to let Vice-Chancellor of Students Ron Stump and Matthew Lopez-Phillips (Director of CU's Office of Judicial Affairs) know of your complaint and concerns.  You may send both of them e-mail by clicking on this link.  Be sure to let them know of the address of the party.

• You should not assume that Vice-Chancellor Stump and Mr. Lopez-Phillips will automatically receive information about police intervention at noisy parties hosted by CU students.  We have learned that sometimes information does not flow efficiently between the Boulder Police Department and CU.  You can close that gap and speed the transmission of information by sending e-mail to Vice-Chancellor Stump and Mr. Lopez-Phillips.

Give the police as much information about the party as possible, including the street address of the party.  Tell the police that the party "is disturbing my quiet enjoyment of my home."  If there is amplified music (a stereo, for example), tell the police that you can hear amplified music from more than 100 feet.  (Again, average lot width is 50 feet.)  

The police will ask if you would like to be contact by an officer.  Our experience is that you will get better and faster results from the police if you say yes.  If you prefer, you can also say that the police should stop to see you "if needed."  You can also say no if you prefer not to advertise the fact that you called cops on the party.

In addition, when you call the police about a noisy party, say specifically that you do not want the complaint "stacked" for Environmental Enforcement Officers but that you want regular police officers to respond to your complaint.  You might also mention that Captain Sullenberger, the police dispatch commander up until 2004, established a policy on October 30, 2000 that noise complaints on the Hill were not to be stacked for Environmental officers. 

Maximum Penalty for violation of Boulder's noise ordinance is a $1,000 fine plus up to 90 days in jail.  Typically though, first time offenders get fines in the $200-300 range.