Belleair Beach may allow hooting, singing after dark. Basketball hoops? Still up in the air.

BELLEAIR BEACH — It soon may be legal to hoot, whistle or sing on city streets after 10 p.m. But can you leave a portable basketball hoop in your driveway overnight?

It’s complicated.

Such unusual and rarely enforced rules are among the quirks that remain on the city’s code books, legal tomes that govern life in this beachside community of about 1,600 residents.

The city council on July 6 tried to add some clarity and common sense to some of these outdated and lesser-known ordinances, approving on first reading several changes — including repealing this prohibition:

“Yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling, singing or creating similar noises on the public streets, particularly between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. in such a manner so as to cause a disturbance of the peace, health, quiet or comfort of the neighborhood or vicinity.”

Those specific (and human) noise violations would be replaced with a ban on excessive engine roar from boats and vehicles operated without mufflers.

An additional restriction would prohibit operating boat motors out of the water between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. or for more than 30 minutes during any 24-hour period.

“The boat and vehicle noise is being substituted for yelling and shouting, which is hard to enforce,” City Attorney Thomas Trask told the council.

So if approved on second reading, a late-night street serenade would no longer violate noise regulations — provided you don't do it too loudly. It would still be illegal to make "loud and raucous" noises during overnight hours.

That assured council member Marv Behm, who asked what the city could do about “a rental house next to you and you get some people in there yelling and screaming” after 10 p.m.

But council member Frank Bankard questioned removing the specific language.

“I can tell if someone’s yelling or shouting extremely loud between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.,” he said. “I don’t know why we scratched that out.”

Another proposed change would exempt portable basketball hoops from a rule requiring residents to put away a list of stuff that can be seen from the street within 24 hours.

These include children’s toys, bicycles, skateboards, garbage cans, tools and “any other portable item that is not part of the natural landscaping.”

Unlike many local ordinances that regulate basketball hoops in streets or sidewalks, Belleair Beach's code regulates hoops kept on private property when they are visible from the street.

The exemption would apply to basketball hoops with weighted bases filled with water or sand to prevent them from tipping over.

Vice Mayor Lloyd Roberts said the concern was with smaller children’s hoops that can remain outside indefinitely.

“We’re all familiar with the tiny tikes basketball hoops that are out there that weigh 15 pounds,” Roberts said. “Those are the types we don’t want sitting out there for multiple days.”

Bankard, though, questioned why any portable basketball hoop should be treated differently.

He also objected to removing the ordinance's $500 cap on administrative fees the city can charge when it abates a nuisance, saying the change could allow the council to raise those fees by resolution in the future.

“So some mom and dad that couldn’t fix a basketball hoop could get fined $1,000, in my view, because they’re busy working,” Bankard said.

“I think the ordinance stinks.”