Second-time offenders of new Cape noise ordinance would get $500 fine

Drivers blasting the bass in their car could get a ticket, even if a cop does not hear it. That is if Cape Coral passes a new ordinance that would allow your neighbor who is fed up with the noise to help prove a noise violation.

You likely have heard a driver blaring the bass from the car’s stereo system when stopped at a traffic light. But it is a sound Terry Meledandri would rather not hear from the comfort of her home.

“You can feel the vibration,” said Terry Meledandri, who lives in Cape Coral. “That’s how loud they keep their radio.”

That is why Meledandri supports Cape Coral’s plan to expand the current noise ordinance to include cars.

“We are thrilled to death,” Meledandri said. “I can’t wait till they can pull them off the road.”

Master Corporal Phil Mullen, who works at the Cape Coral Police Dept., said the current ordinance is hard to enforce.

“We will at the very minimum,” Mullen said, “drive through the neighborhood, roll the windows down and listen for the source of the noise.”

If an officer can not hear it, he said they would consider it unfounded and move on.

But if the city council approves the changes to the noise ordinance, Marley Carter said he would be sure to record his noisy neighbors in the act.

“It’s disturbing to other neighbors as well as myself,” Carter said.

Offenders would receive a $150 fine for the first time. Subsequent offenders will see the citation increase to $500.

Officers will be able to use a neighbor’s video to help determine whether someone’s car or a party, for instance, is too loud. But one woman WINK News spoke with said she fears that will turn neighbors against each other.

“They’d have to have more than one complaint or be there physically,” Lynne-Marie Maylott said, “to really know what’s going on.”