County noise ordinance upgrade is under review as booming bass drives residents mad.

It sometimes starts as early as 3:30pm on Saturdays, the steady “boom, boom, boom” sound of amplified bass music that vibrates up and down the canyons of North County. The music from concert-style parties usually continues nonstop until 3am or 4am, says Prunedale resident Sabrina Carrillo. It’s gotten so bad that Carrillo and her family will sometimes leave the area for the night just to get some sleep. She knows of others who have given up and sold their homes.

“Right now it’s every other weekend, usually Saturday nights after 7,” Carrillo says. “As soon as the weather gets nicer, it’s a free-for-all.”

The problem has been intensifying over the last two years, Carrillo says. Monterey County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Joseph Banuelos says last summer there were a rash of parties with hundreds of partygoers, circus-sized tents, alcohol, portable toilets and live bands or DJs. He says party organizers regularly approach property owners with promises of as much as $2,500 cash for one night, assuring the owners they have all the proper permits, but usually don’t.

“We were getting hit with loud party calls, easily 12 to 15 a night,” Banuelos says.

After two years of calling sheriff’s deputies and asking county officials for help to no avail, Carrillo reached her breaking point in July.

She launched a petition on change.org and later a private Facebook group. She spoke at length with deputies, who were as frustrated as she was because the current ordinance doesn’t give them the tools to shut down offenders.

Soon after she launched the petition, Carrillo secured a meeting with Monterey County Supervisor John Phillips, who represents North County, and representatives from the Sheriff’s Office and county code enforcement.

In December, Phillips requested county staff to study the possibility of a revised noise ordinance. Deputy Counsel Brian Briggs is currently working on a draft that could possibly be considered by the Board of Supervisors as early as March.

“The current ordinance does not provide us with any teeth,” Banuelos says.

It doesn’t take into consideration all types of decibel readings and is ineffectual in terms of distances between rural homes. For example, it requires a decibel reading of 85 at the property line, which works fine in residential areas, but rural homes can be a great distance apart. The ordinance is of no help for neighbors who are disturbed by music coming from miles away.

Banuelos says he expects the proposed ordinance will lower the allowable decibel level and will give deputies the power to decide if a noise is “plainly audible” regardless of distance, and therefore a nuisance.

Escalating fines are also on the table, Phillips says, giving the county some leverage to penalize offenders, especially repeat offenders. He also says a streamlined reporting process was created so that sheriff’s deputies can now report non-permitted parties to code enforcement.

Phillips says he himself has had to shut the window some summer nights at his home near Prunedale.

“It does travel through the canyon, and god love them, but they’re never playing Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra,” he says.

Editor's Note: A level of 85 decibels is the maximum allowable during daytime hours. The maximum level between 10pm and 7am is 65.