CHAPTER IX: PENAL REGULATIONS
Section 900 Regulations Relating to and Providing for Good Order
Section 900:00. Disturbing Meetings. No person shall disturb, interfere with, or annoy any congregation, gathering or meeting assembled for religious worship of any kind within this municipality by noise or by conduct of any including but not limited to discharging firearms, blowing horns, ringing bells, hallowing or shouting, by beating, striking, or performing on an instrument or device whatsoever, in such a manner as to produce disagreeable, discordant, or frightful sounds, within the house or place of worship, or so near thereto as to be heard therein. Nor shall any person disturb or annoy any public or private school of any kind or any public or private school of any kind, or any convention, caucus, or meeting of any political party or any public or private meeting of any church, society or organization of any kind or any public or private meeting or gathering of the people for lawful purposes, family or individual, within this municipality.
Section 900:02. Disturbing Assembly. No person shall at any public meeting or other assembly, or in any hotel, tavern, store, shop or other place of business or private residence be guilty of any violent, tumultuous, offensive or disorderly conduct or shall make any loud or unusual noise or disturbance, or shall use obscene, offensive, abusive, or profane, or unseemly language to the annoyance, disturbance or vexation of others.
Section 900:04. Actions of Drunken Persons. No person, being drunk or intoxicated, shall in any street, alley, or thoroughfare, or in any saloon, bar room, hotel, hall, store, shop, office or other public place in this municipality, touch any person then and there present, not swear at, curse, or otherwise abuse such other person, unless such other person consents thereto.
Section 900:06. Breach of Peace. No person shall make any improper or riotous noise, disturbance or diversion, or make any breach of the peace, or use any threatening, abusive or insulting toward or to another person, or in reference to or in the presence of any member of the family of another, tending to a breach of the peace, in any public or private place within the corporate limits of this municipality. Nor shall persons collect or congregate together in crowds for unlawful purposes or to the annoyance of any peaceable person within this municipality.
Section 900:08. Assault or Attack. No person shall commit any assault or battery of any kind upon, to or toward any other person, or engage in any fight, affray, or quarrel in this municipality. Nor shall any person throw or cast any stone, stick or other missile upon, or at any building, tree or other public or private property in this municipality nor upon or at any person, or any street, avenue, sidewalk, alley, land or in any public or private place, or on any public or private grounds in this municipality.
Section 900:10. Improper Use of Animals. No person shall run, or immoderately ride or drive any horse, mare, gelding or mule faster or at a greater speed than at the rate of six miles an hour, in, along or through any street, alley, or highway or over or upon any public ground or other public place within this municipality. Nor shall any person ride or drive any horse or other animal within this municipality in such manner as to injure, endanger or unnecessarily annoy or incommode any person. Nor shall any person in charge of any horse, mule, or team of any kind, or any wagon, sled, sleigh, buggy, carriage or vehicle of any kind, leave, or stop any such horse, mule or team of any kind, or any such wagon, sled, sleigh, buggy, carriage or vehicle of any kind, on any street crossing or alley crossing in this municipality.
Section 900:12. Unattended Animals. No person shall leave any horse or mule, or any animal or team of the horse kind, whether attached or unattached to any wagon, sled, sleigh, buggy, carriage or vehicle, standing on any street, alley, lane or public grounds within this municipality, unless such horse, mule, or other animal or team be securely fastened by the head with a rope, halter or chain or otherwise, or the reins or lines be in the hands of some capable person. No person shall tie, hitch or fasten any horse, mule or other animal to any lamppost, fence, or ornamental or shade tree not his own within this municipality.
Section 900:14. Abuse of Animals. No person shall within this municipality inhumanely, cruelly, wantonly, or unnecessarily beat, injure, or otherwise misuse or abuse any dumb animal. Nor shall any person in charge of any horse or mule, or any animal of the horse kind, or any ox, cow, or cattle of any kind, or any team of any kind, allow or permit the same to be and remain hitched, tied or fastened on any street, alley, lane, avenue or public or private ground within this municipality, without proper food and water, for an unreasonable time, nor after any police officer shall have notified such person to care for such horse, mule, ox, cow or other animal, or such team.
Section 900:16. Hitching Required. No person shall leave any horse or mule, or any team in any uninclosed or public place without having fastened, guarded or secured it so as to prevent it running away.
Section 900:18. Diseased Animals, Milk, Food or Drink. No person shall sell, expose, or offer for sale any sick or diseased animal, poultry, or fish to be eaten or used as food.; or the flesh of any sick, diseased or otherwise unwholesome, dead animal, poultry or fish not usually used or deemed wholesome for food or any other unwholesome or unsound provisions or article of food whatever, or any adulterated or pernicious milk, drink or liquors. Any police officer of this municipality shall seize, or cause to be seized and destroyed any such food, milk, drink or other provisions offered for sale.
Section 900:20 Poison. No person shall keep, sell or deliver any poison usually known as deadly poison, without legibly marking the name thereof and the word "poison" upon the phial, wrapper or other enclosure containing the same, or whoever shall sell or deliver any arsenic, strychnine, Prussia acid, aconite, laudanum, opium, ammonia, or other drug or poison, usually known or used as a deadly poison known to him without registering the name of such person, and kind and which the same was obtained, and no person shall sell,
or deliver any such poison to any person to him unknown, but the sale or delivery of any such poison as medicine upon the prescription of a practicing physician, shall not be deemed a violation of this section.
Section 900:22. Prostitution. No person in any public or private place, shall offer or submit his or her body indiscriminately for sexual intercourse, whether or not for a consideration.
Section 900:24. Indecent Conduct. No person, in any public or private place, shall engage in, or offer or attempt to engage in, or congregate because of, (a) lewd, lascivious or immoral conduct, (b) the use of slanderous, foul, obscene, or indecent language, (c) the indecent or lascivious exposure or use of the human body, or any part thereof, or (d) behavior, whether by words or acts of a nature to corrupt the public morals or to outrage the sense of public decency.
Section 900:26. Indecent Exposure. No person, being over the age of fourteen years, shall wilfully make any indecent exposure of his or her person, in any public place where there are other persons to be offended or annoyed thereby, nor utter or use any obscene or licentious language or words, in the presence or hearing of any person, while within the corporate limits of this municipality.
Section 900:28. Gaming House ; Ill Fame. No person shall keep, maintain, frequent, be an inmate of or connected with or contribute to the support of any disorderly, gaming or bawdy house, house of ill fame or assignation of any place used for the purpose of fornication; or shall knowingly suffer or permit any premises owned or occupied by him or under his control to be used for any such purpose.
Section 900:30. Allowing Minors to Gamble. No person, having the cars or control of any billiard table, pigeon hole, bowling alley or card table shall permit any person under the age of eighteen years to play thereon or upon either of the same for money, for liquor, or for past time.
Section 900:32. Noises Prohibited[1]
Subd. 1. Definitions. Words and phrases defined in this Section have, when used in this ordinance, the meanings given below. Any other word or phrase used in this Section, and defined in regulations of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Noise Pollution Control Rules Chapter 7030, has the meaning given in those regulations.
- Air Circulation Device shall mean a mechanism designed and used for the controlled flow of air used in ventilation, cooling, or conditioning, including, but not limited to, central and window air conditioning units.
- L10 shall mean the sound level, expressed in decibels (dBA) which is exceeded 10 percent of the time for a one-hour period, as measured by a sound level meter having characteristics as specified in the latest standards of the American National Standards Institute and using test procedures approved by the City Administrator.
- L50 shall mean the sound level, expressed in decibels (dBA) which is exceeded 50% of the time for a one-hour period, as measured by a sound level meter having characteristics as specified in the latest standards of the American National Standards Institute and using test procedures approved by the City Administrator.
- Person shall mean an individual, firm, partnership, corporation, trustee, association, the state and its agencies and subdivisions, or any body of persons whether incorporated or not. With respect to acts prohibited or required herein, “Person” shall include employees and licensees.
Subd. 2. General prohibition. No Person shall make or cause to be made any distinctly and loudly audible noise that unreasonably annoys, disturbs, injures, or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace, safety, or welfare of any Persons or precludes their enjoyment of property or affects their property’s value. This general prohibition is not limited by the specific restrictions of the following subdivisions.
Subd. 3. Motor vehicles. No Person shall operate a motor vehicle in the city in violation of the motor vehicle noise limits of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Subd. 4. Horns, etc. No Person shall sound any signaling device on any vehicle or stationary location except as a warning of danger, as required by Minn. Stat. 169.68. This subdivision includes, but is not limited to, vehicle horns and factory whistles. This subdivision does not apply to church bells.
Subd. 5. Exhaust. No Person shall discharge the exhaust, or permit the discharge of the exhaust of any steam engine, stationary internal combustion engine, motor boat, motor vehicle, or snowmobile except through a muffler or other device that effectively prevents loud or explosive noises therefrom and complies with all applicable state laws and regulations.
Subd. 6. Defective vehicles or loads. No Person shall use any vehicle so out of repair or so loaded as to create loud and unnecessary grating, grinding, rattling, or other noise.
Subd. 7. Loading, unloading, unpacking. No Person shall create loud and excessive noise in loading, unloading, or unpacking any vehicle.
Subd. 8. Radios, paging system, etc. No Person shall use or operate or permit the use or operation of any radio receiving set, musical instrument, phonograph, paging system, machine, or other device for the production or reproduction of sound in a distinctly and loudly audible manner as to unreasonably disturb the peace, quiet, and comfort of any Person nearby. Operation of any such set, instrument, phonograph, machine, or other device between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. in such a manner as to be plainly audible at the property line of the structure or building in which it is located, in the hallway or apartment adjacent, or at a distance of 50 feet if the source is located outside a structure or building shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of this section.
Subd. 9. Parties & gatherings. No Person shall participate in any party or other gathering of people giving rise to noise, unreasonably disturbing the peace, quiet or repose of another Person. When a police officer determines that a gathering is creating such a noise disturbance, the officer may order all Persons present, other than the owner or tenant of the premises where the disturbance is occurring, to disperse immediately. No Person shall refuse to leave after being ordered by a police officer to do so. Every owner or tenant of such premises who has knowledge of the disturbance shall make every reasonable effort to see that the disturbance is stopped.
Subd. 10. Loudspeakers advertising. No Person shall operate or permit the use or operation of any loudspeaker, sound amplifier, or other device for the production or reproduction of sound on a street or other public place for the purpose of commercial advertising or attracting the attention of the public to any commercial establishment or vehicle without a permit for such use issued by the city.
Subd. 11. Animals. No Person shall keep any animal that unreasonably disturbs the comfort or repose of Persons in the vicinity by its frequent or continued noise. For purposes of this Section, “disturbs the comfort or repose of Persons in the vicinity by its frequent or continued noise” means any one of the following:
- The animal noise occurs at a time between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. and can be heard from a location outside the building and premises where the animal is being kept, and the animal has made such noises intermittently for more than three (3) minutes with one minute or less lapse of time between each animal noise during the three minute period; or
- The animal noise can be heard from a one block distance from the location of the building and premises where the animal is being kept, and the animal has made such noises intermittently for more than three (3) minutes with one minute or less lapse of time between each animal noise during the three minute period; or
- The animal noise can be heard from a location outside the building and premises where the animal is being kept, and the animal has made such noises intermittently for a period of at least five (5) minutes with one minute or less lapse of time between each animal noise during the five minute period.
Subd. 12. Near institutions. No Person shall create any excessive noise on a street, alley, or public grounds adjacent to any school, institution of learning, church, or hospital when the noise unreasonably interferes with the working of the institution or disturbs or unduly annoys its occupants or residents and when conspicuous signs indicate the presence of such institution.
Subd. 13. Recreational vehicles. No Person shall drive or operate any minibike, snowmobile, or other recreational vehicle not licensed for travel on public highways in such a way as to generate any noise beyond the minimum amounts required to operate such vehicle in the quietest manner possible.
Subd. 14. Power equipment. No Person shall operate a power lawn mower, power hedge clipper, chain saw, mulcher, garden tiller, edger, drill, or other similar domestic maintenance equipment except between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on any weekday or between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on any weekend or holiday. Snow removal equipment, lawn maintenance equipment for commercial golf courses, and all City owned equipment are exempt from this provision[2].
Subd. 15. Refuse hauling. No Person shall collect or remove garbage in any residential district except between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on any weekday or between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on any weekend or holiday.
Subd. 16. Construction activities. No Person shall engage in or permit construction activities involving the use of any kind of electric, diesel or gas-powered machine or other power equipment except between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on any weekday or between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on any weekend or holiday.
Subd. 17. Maximum noise levels. No Person shall operate or cause or permit to be operated any source of noise in such a manner as to create a noise level exceeding the limit set in the following table for the receiving land use category when measured at a point of normal human activity of the receiving land use. A “point of normal human activity” shall generally define any part of a property that is designed or intended to serve as a place where humans may routinely be in any of the following land use districts. In a Residential district the term shall include any house, attached or detached garages, lawns, gardens, porches, patios, decks, and the like. Sound measurements may be taken from any floor of a multi-story structure provided that those floors are a point of normal human activity, and such measurements may be taken from inside a structure with the windows opened. A point of normal human activity shall typically exclude parking lots, rivers, lakes, streams, wet or dry ponds, wooded areas, and the like.
Sound Levels by Receiving Land Use Districts
Day Night
(7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.)(10:00 p.m. – 7:00 a.m.)
Land Use DistrictsL10L50L10L50
Residential 65605550
Commercial70657065
Industrial80758075
Subd. 18. Exemptions.[3] The restrictions set forth in Subds. 16 and 17 do not apply to noise originating on public streets and alleys provided that the noise generating activities are conducted by or on behalf of the City.