Chicopee, MA Noise from Specific Sources: Generator Noise (2026)

Chicopee's Noise chapter, Chapter 200, never uses the word generator, so an engine-driven generator falls under the wording the City Council actually adopted: the exhaust rule in § 200-3(C). That subsection prohibits the discharge into the open air of the exhaust of any steam engine, stationary internal combustion engine, motor vehicle or boat engine or motor, except through a muffler or other device which will effectively prevent loud or explosive noises. The test is functional: the exhaust has to run through a muffler or comparable device, and that device has to be effective against loud or explosive noises.

The listing in § 200-3 opens with the words "among others," and the code states the enumeration is not exclusive. Section 200-2 sets the general standard behind it: the creation of any unreasonably loud, disturbing and unnecessary noise is prohibited, and so is noise of such character, intensity and duration as to be detrimental to the life or health of any individual or contrary to the public welfare. A stationary engine with a working muffler can still fall under that standard if its character, intensity and duration meet it.

Other subsections of § 200-3 reach the same equipment when it runs at a job site or business. Subsection (D) limits erection, excavating, demolition or repair of any building to the hours it prints, and subsection (I) prohibits unnecessary noise in the operation, conduct or maintenance of any business, factory, plant, yard or manufacturing establishment. Chicopee's zoning text on wind energy systems also points back to § 200-2 for noise, which shows the Noise chapter's general standard is applied to equipment outside Chapter 200. Under § 200-1, only organs, radios, bells, chimes and other instruments used by a church, synagogue or school are exempted from the chapter.