§ 9-301. Declaration of findings and intent.

(a) Findings.

Having received an increasing number of complaints from citizens about noise and having made certain observations of the subject, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore finds that:

(1) excessive noise, when unnecessary for religious, political, civic, commercial, or other constitutionally protected activities or when not generated in the course of other activity needed to carry on daily life, creates a significant threat to the public health, safety, and welfare in an area as densely populated as Baltimore City;

(2) the noises most obnoxious to the public health, safety, and welfare and least necessary for any constitutionally protected or otherwise necessary activity are those that are loud, boisterous, raucous, or unseemly or that are generated solely for the purpose of entertainment, without regard to the health, welfare, and safety of others who, because of population density, are unable to avoid being subjected to those noises; and

(3) an alarming increase is occurring in the frequency and volume of this sort of noise, particularly from loud parties and from the plethora of portable sound-producing and reproducing devices available today.

(b) Intent.

The Mayor and City Council intend this subtitle, therefore, to serve as a vehicle for the control and regulation of noises that pose a threat to the health, safety, or welfare of the citizens of Baltimore. One part of this subtitle regulates noises generated solely for entertainment purposes. Another balances the public interest in regulating certain types of noisy commercial advertising to protect the public health, safety, and welfare, on the one hand, against the interests of the commercial establishments employing that advertising, on the other.