RIO RANCHO, N.M. — Rio Rancho city councilors are looking into making changes to the city noise ordinance after city officials say the police department has been getting more noise complaints.  

“Noise complaints come up regularly in the city of Rio Rancho for example, in Calander year of 2022 and 23 a total of 1,323 noise complaint calls were made to police department at 93% of those pertained to residentially zoned areas,” said Peter Wells, the deputy city manager.  

Residents, however, are concerned about how the ordinance would be implemented and voiced their concerns at the recent city council meeting.  

One Rio Rancho Resident said, “I moved out to Rio Rancho to enjoy a backyard. These numbers are low, I will tell you probably one weekend a month I have an inflatable movie screen, a projector, my friends are over. Are we a little loud? We aren’t a house party but we are enjoying ourselves.”

“Playing music at a volume of a normal conversation level in someone’s backyard in the middle of the day would be in violation of this ordinance. Using a leaf blower, vacuum, or saw during the day would be higher than 55 decibels and violation of the ordinance. These seem unreasonable to me,” said another resident during the public comment section of the city council meeting. 

According to the new ordinance, during the day residents would have to keep the noise to 55 decibels, and starting at 9 p.m. that would move down to 50. 

There would also be some changes for businesses, the ordinance would require them to stay below 65 decibels during the day and 60 at night.  

“I believe that this ordinance is good enough to be accepted as is and as discussed,” said one resident.  

Business owners like Scott Salvas also said that strict noise rules could deter businesses like The Block from coming to Enchanted Hills or other beer gardens like BeerLab 101.  

“We support a new ordinance that is revised and does include a decibel system. We just think there are a few issues that need to be clarified. One that is important to us and other people is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of effort to solicit public input from residents or businesses on this particular ordinance,” said Scott Salvas, the Owner of BrewLab 101.  

Residents have time to give input or suggestions on the city website.  

City leaders are asking them to submit their feedback by March 29 at noon. City councilors postponed the first reading of the noise ordinance. The first reading will be on April 11.