Commerce City, CO Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Section 21-5259 of the Land Development Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 2078 in April 2016, provides that no new residential use shall be established on any property that lies within an airport noise contour of 55 DNL, day-night average sound level, or higher. The 55 DNL threshold is the standard aviation-noise measurement used to map cumulative aircraft noise exposure over a 24-hour period, with heavier weighting on nighttime flights; areas at or above that level are generally considered incompatible with new housing. The rule applies citywide wherever an airport noise contour reaches that level, which is most relevant to the parts of Commerce City near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, Buckley Space Force Base, and other regional aviation facilities whose noise contours extend into city limits.

The restriction is a use limitation applied at the development-review stage: the Community Development Department checks proposed residential plats and site plans against current airport noise contour mapping before approving a new residential use, and a project that falls inside the 55 DNL contour cannot be approved as residential regardless of the underlying zone district. The section sits in Article V, Uses and Accessory Structures, of the Land Development Code alongside other use-specific standards, rather than in the zoning-district dimensional tables, meaning it functions as an overlay-style restriction on top of whatever base zoning otherwise allows residential development.