Newport Beach caps noise at the receiving property line under Municipal Code Chapter 10.26. On industrial land the limit is 70 dB(A) day and night; at a single-family home it drops to 55 dB(A) daytime and 50 dB(A) overnight. Data-center cooling and generators must meet the neighbor's limit.
Newport Beach's Community Noise Control ordinance, Municipal Code Section 10.26.025, makes it unlawful to create noise that exceeds the receiving zone's standard when measured on another property. Limits by land use: single-, two-, or multiple-family residential (Zone I) 55 dB(A) daytime (7 a.m.-10 p.m.) and 50 dB(A) overnight (10 p.m.-7 a.m.); commercial (Zone II) 65/60; mixed-use residential (Zone III) 60/50; and industrial or manufacturing (Zone IV) 70 dB(A) at all hours. A data center's continuous chillers, cooling towers, and backup generators are measured at the nearest receiver; the 50 dB(A) overnight residential floor binds where IG land abuts homes.
Noise over the Section 10.26.025 limits, measured for any fifteen-minute period on another property, is a violation the city enforces through citations and, for permitted projects, breach of the noise conditions on the use permit.
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Newport Beach, CA
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