Noise law tightened in Madera County after complaints about parties. How will it be enforced?
More citations with higher fees, potential misdemeanor charges and no more loud noise overnight.
That’s what the Madera County Board of Supervisors have approved in an effort to crack down on what the Sheriff’s Office reports as “a growing issue with loud parties and large gatherings.”
The anti-noise law update comes after Code Enforcement reviewed 174 noise complaints last year, a 241% increase from the 51 they received in 2023. The number of notices and citations that the county issued also increased significantly, but unincorporated Madera residents say those compliance measures haven’t worked to shut down the parties they have been complaining about.
“Yes, I am the Karen of the neighborhood,” Madera County resident Melissa Sloan told the board March 11. “I work long hours on the road and this isn’t how I want to live my life.”
She and a few other residents of rural Madera County communities described drunken partygoers riding four-wheelers up and down streets, playing loud music and shooting guns into the air. They alleged the noisemakers don’t pay the citation fees they are issued and push deputies who respond to the parties “off their property, saying it’s private property.”
“There’s nothing we can do about it because nothing’s getting done,” Sloan said.
In a statement to The Bee, the Madera County Sheriff’s Office said the new ordinance “was enacted to address identified deficiencies in the old ordinance.”
“The perception that deputies can’t effectively deal with the crowds is their perception alone,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “It’s not necessarily reality.”
Anti-noise law details, enforcement
According to a March 11 presentation by Jamie Bax, Madera County director of community and economic development, Code Enforcement reviews noise complaints for locations and the history of property owners’ offenses. The county can then cite those property owners if the Sheriff’s Office has responded to multiple complaints against them.
Failure to pay the citation can result in a lien being placed on a property, and a failure to pay the lien by Aug. 1 can cause it to be placed on the property’s taxes.
The new law, which takes effect next month, also allows individuals to be cited. It also bans “noise disturbance that crosses residential property lines from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.”
“The time is to hope to grab the attention of the public,” Bax told the board Tuesday, “to say, ‘Hey, we do have a time you need to turn your music down.’ But they really need to comply 24 hours a day.”
The county can now cite offenders for loud noise multiple times a day, and the fees have been raised: up to $500 for the first violation, up to $750 for the second violation within a year of the first and up to $1,000 for any additional violation within a year of the first.
District 1 Supervisor Jordan Wamhoff said March 11 that charging people with misdemeanors for noise violations will allow deputies to seize the equipment of musical bands that repeatedly ignore the ordinance.
But Wamhoff also questioned whether deputies using a specific citation book — addressed to Code Enforcement — and detailing the citations in a report would “dissuade” some deputies from following through with the process.
“A lot of times with noise ordinances, you go tell them to turn it down,” said Wamhoff, who is a police officer in Fresno. “And a lot of times, if there’s a report involved, sometimes the citations don’t necessarily happen.”
A patrol lieutenant with the Sheriff’s Office told Wamhoff during the meeting that the new enforcement process is “streamlined enough” that issuing the citations will not be an issue.
“It’s also incumbent upon myself as the patrol lieutenant to assure that those types of things are not happening on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “This is a constant issue for us. It’s probably one of the biggest quality of life complaints that we get throughout the county.”
Complaints about parties in rural areas
Madera County is not alone when it comes to complaints about parties in rural neighborhoods.
In Merced County, the Sheriff’s Office responded to 829 noise complaints last year, though Capt. Aaron Rosenberg told The Bee that his agency has not seen the type of parties described by Madera residents. Most of the time, a verbal warning is sufficient, Rosenberg said, and deputies in Merced County issued only two citations for noise violations last year.
In Fresno County, the Board of Supervisors approved a stricter noise ordinance in December, also making “serious” violations punishable as a misdemeanor.
“We have seen an uptick in people who are using their rural homes as venues for birthday parties or other types of large gatherings,” District 5 Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig told The Bee. “Sometimes they even charge a fee for people to come and enjoy these parties.”
Previously, deputies needed those who complained about noise in their neighborhood to sign the citation that would then be issued to noisemakers. Now, deputies in Fresno County can issue citations without having the complainers sign it.
“The whole goal is not to issue fines, but just to let people know that there is an ordinance in place and they’re in violation,” Magsig said. “And if they don’t come into compliance, which means they need to turn the music down or stop that party altogether, they could be issued fines, and even in some cases, receive other penalties.”
