Somewhere in Sarasota, a lawn mower is growling, a dog is barking, a bass line is slipping through a condominium wall and somebody is revving an engine as if Main Street was Daytona Beach.

The City of Sarasota wants to hear about it. It also wants to know which sounds people enjoy.

As the first phase of a citywide sound study approaches completion, residents, business owners and visitors are invited to complete a four-page online survey about the sounds they encounter around the city. It takes less than five minutes, and responses will be accepted through Monday, Aug. 31.

The survey begins with basic demographic questions, including age, ZIP code, connection to Sarasota and type of home. It then asks how important the city’s “soundscape” is to the respondent and how disturbing sounds have been during the past year.

From there, the questions become more specific: How often does the disturbance occur? At what time of day? How long does it typically last?

A checklist asks participants to identify troublesome sources, including revving engines and loud exhaust systems, car stereos, general traffic, air-conditioning units and pool pumps, lawn equipment, barking dogs, construction and more. 

The survey isn’t framed solely as an airing of grievances. Participants can describe sounds they find acceptable as well as those they don’t, giving the city a broader picture of what people believe Sarasota should sound like.

Siebein Acoustic, the city’s consultant, has spent the summer taking measurements, gathering technical data, meeting with residents and business owners and visiting locations around Sarasota at different times. Sound-monitoring equipment has been placed around the city, including at two downtown locations. Consultants also collected information during the July 3–4 holiday period and at special events.

The study includes vehicle noise such as modified exhaust systems, engine revving, muffler popping and backfiring. Consultants have also worked with the Sarasota Police Department to understand the practical problems officers face when responding to complaints.

Siebein Acoustic is expected to present its Phase 1 findings to the City Commission in September. Commissioners will review the survey responses alongside acoustic measurements, field observations and other technical information before considering possible ordinance changes or deciding whether more study is warranted.

September won’t mark the end of the entire project. A second phase is planned for late 2026, followed by a final phase during the first half of 2027. That schedule will allow the consultant to collect information during Sarasota’s busier winter season.

Online reaction to the survey has already shown how difficult the subject can be. Beneath a widely shared Facebook post, many commenters focused on the study’s reported $200,000 cost. Some questioned why anyone would move to a city and expect quiet. 

They capture a familiar divide: One person’s lively downtown is another person’s sleepless night. The city has been trying to determine where liveliness ends and unreasonable noise begins for decades.

In 2000, a state appellate court struck down a Sarasota ordinance that banned amplified sound from unenclosed structures in certain districts during specified hours. The court found that the prohibition went too far and required clearer standards that would protect against arbitrary enforcement.

Another clash followed in 2009, when the ACLU of Florida sued over a city policy that allowed police to seize vehicles in loud-music cases. The case ended in a $50,000 settlement in 2010, and the city agreed to stop enforcing the challenged provision.

By 2022, commissioners were again asking the city attorney and police to simplify Sarasota’s sound regulations and make them easier to enforce. The city’s decibel-based standards require officers to measure sound under prescribed conditions, an approach that can be difficult when the noise is intermittent, stops before an officer arrives or travels differently at street level and inside a condominium tower.

The issue returned to the City Commission in December 2025. Commissioners gave unanimous initial approval to adding a “plainly audible” standard modeled on one that has survived review in federal court: Certain sounds heard from 100 feet away during nighttime hours could constitute a violation even without a decibel reading.

Commissioners also directed the city to hire an acoustic consultant to study decibel limits and consider whether Sarasota should be divided into sound zones instead of operating under one citywide standard. The current study grew from there.

Sarasota Police Department records show that the city received 6,235 noise-disturbance calls from Jan. 1, 2022, through July 12, 2026. Nearly two-thirds came on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The busiest hour was 11 p.m., followed by midnight and 10 p.m.

Calls have recently trended downward. The city recorded 524 through July 12 of this year, 16 percent fewer than during the same period in 2025 and 42 percent fewer than during the comparable period in 2023.

Those figures show when people call police. The survey is intended to fill in some of those blanks.

For five minutes of clicking, participants are being asked a surprisingly complicated question: What should a growing city sound like? The answer could help determine which noises Sarasota tolerates, which ones it quiets and how the city tells the difference.

Fill out the survey here.