Boone County, IN Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Boone County Code § 92.05, part of Ord. 2007-14 (passed 7-16-2007), lists the sounds exempted from the general noise chapter. Division (D) exempts sounds associated with the normal conduct of legally established, non-transient businesses when the sound is customary and within the normal range for that use, and it separately exempts noises ordinarily associated with agricultural uses and noises ordinarily associated with aircrafts, airports and trains. Because the exemption sits in the same section as the business and farm carve-outs, it functions as a blanket pass for the routine sound aircraft and rail operations generate in the county, whether from airport traffic, agricultural aviation, or freight and passenger rail lines crossing the county.

The exemption applies alongside the other carve-outs in § 92.05: emergency vehicles (A), authorized parades, festivals, and concerts (B), and athletic or sporting events (C). None of the exempted categories, aircraft included, are subject to the verbal-warning-then-citation process or the up-to-$250 fine that § 92.99 imposes for the acts declared unlawful noise in § 92.03(B). A resident bothered by aircraft or train noise in unincorporated Boone County therefore has no claim under this chapter; the exemption leaves any recourse, if one exists, to federal aviation noise rules or railroad regulation rather than the county's Board of Commissioners.