The Ouray City Council’s first step toward revising the city’s noise ordinance involved cranking up the volume outdoors, in a hotel parking lot on a chilly winter afternoon.

Councilors who are intent on recalibrating an ordinance they say is too subjective appear headed toward adopting new rules based on decibel levels. But first they must decide what’s acceptable — the level of noise, the distance it can travel at that level and the duration of the noise.

To that end, they gathered outsid...