West Bloomfield, MI Noise from Specific Sources: Generator Noise (2026)

Section 15-141(d)(9) lets a generator run louder than the Township's baseline decibel limits in two distinct situations. First, the operation of emergency power generators during times of a power outage is unrestricted by time of day: a generator running because the grid is down is exempt from the 85 dBA daytime and 75 dBA nighttime caps in subsection (c) for as long as the outage lasts, day or night. Second, routine exercise or maintenance cycles, the periodic self-tests that standby generators run on a schedule even with no outage, are capped at no more than fifteen minutes each week and confined to the window between 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.

That maintenance window is narrower than nearly every other exception in subsection (d), reflecting that a self-test, unlike an actual outage, is optional and schedulable. A homeowner or business whose generator is programmed to self-test at 6:00 a.m., or for longer than fifteen minutes in a given week, loses the exception and is measured against the flat decibel limits in subsection (c) instead. The provision sits in Section 15-141, Chapter 15, Article V, Offenses Against Public Peace, last amended by Ordinance No. C-755, Section 1, adopted September 12, 2011.

Because Section 15-141 carries no generator-specific fine, a maintenance test that runs too long or at the wrong hour defaults to the Code's general misdemeanor penalty in Section 1-10(a), enforceable by the West Bloomfield Police Department or the Township's appointed ordinance enforcement officer under Section 1-13.