Cobb County, GA Noise from Specific Sources: Generator Noise (2026)

The prohibition sits inside Article VII of Chapter 50, the county's general noise article, which the board of commissioners renumbered on October 24, 2023 and most recently amended again on November 20, 2025. Paragraph (16) of the enumeration in § 50-258 declares that "the operation of generators" is a prohibited noise in the unincorporated county, then carves the rule back with the same three exceptions repeated throughout the article: portable units are excluded outright, and any generator, portable or not, is allowed to run during a power outage, a medical emergency, or scheduled testing and maintenance for ongoing upkeep.

The paragraph also folds in paragraph (6), the article's exhaust rule, which requires internal-combustion engines, including internal-combustion generators, to run through a muffler or other device that prevents loud or explosive noise, again exempting emergency, outage, and maintenance use. In practice, that leaves fixed or standby generators, whole-house or commercial backup units left running outside an outage, an emergency, or a scheduled test, as the target: running one on an ordinary day, unmuffled or otherwise disturbing neighbors, is what the code reaches. County code enforcement and police handle complaints; § 50-260 sets the sound-measurement procedure using a certified, ANSI-standard, A-weighted sound level meter at or within the affected property line if a decibel reading is needed to build a case.

Article-wide exceptions in § 50-259 also apply: activities on county-owned property with the county's permission, county-funded projects, and school-sponsored activities on school grounds are exempt from the whole article, generators included. The rule reaches only the unincorporated county; Marietta, Smyrna, Kennesaw, Acworth, Powder Springs, and Austell enforce their own municipal noise codes for generators run inside city limits.