Hackensack, NJ Noise from Specific Sources: HVAC & Mechanical Noise (2026)

Chapter 112 does not carve out a separate decibel table for air conditioners or HVAC systems; instead it folds them into its general definitions and lets the citywide sound level limits in § 112-7 do the work. Section 112-2's definition of "multiuse property" lists air conditioners by name, alongside boilers, incinerators, elevators, automatic garage doors and laundry rooms, as examples of building equipment that can be a source of elevated sound levels at another category on the same parcel, meaning a commercial unit's rooftop condenser can be a code issue against the residential unit above or beside it even though both sit on one lot.

Because ordinary property-line noise rules assume the source and the receiver are on different lots, § 112-2's definition of "real property line" spells out where the line falls when they are not: on a mixed residential-and-commercial building it is the interface between the two uses, and if there is an outdoor sound source such as an HVAC unit on the same parcel of property, the boundary line is drawn at the exterior wall of the receiving unit. That means a tenant disturbed by a neighboring unit's HVAC condenser can invoke the same maximum permissible sound levels set out in § 112-7 and Tables I through III, measured at their own exterior wall rather than at a lot line that does not exist between two units in the same building.

A Noise Control Officer or Investigator enforces this the same way as any other noise complaint, using the measurement protocol in § 112-6 and, if warranted, a notice of violation or penalty assessment under § 112-11.