Carteret County, NC Noise from Specific Sources: HVAC & Mechanical Noise (2026)

Sec. 3009.2 sits within the article covering 'other requirements for non-residential uses and districts,' so it targets support equipment, such as air compressors and air-conditioning condensers, that a non-residential use places outdoors next to a residential use or district. The county gives the property owner three compliance paths: build a sound-reducing enclosure around the unit, install a buffer, or relocate the equipment to the roof of the primary building. Choosing the roof does not end the analysis, because rooftop equipment must still be screened from view of the adjoining residential use or district and must still be installed in a sound-reducing enclosure, so a bare condenser on a flat roof next to a house does not comply on either the noise or the screening front.

The rule was carried into the zoning ordinance by the Board of Commissioners' amendment of October 15, 2007, and later touched by a February 20, 2023 resolution. Because it lives in the zoning ordinance rather than the county's general nuisance chapter, it is administered by the Planning Department's zoning enforcement officer rather than the Sheriff's Office, and it reaches only equipment sited next to a residential use or district, not equipment placed between two commercial parcels.