Orange County, FL Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Section 15-184 bars any noise disturbance that exceeds the county's Table 1 sound-level limits or plainly-audible standard, but § 15-185 lists sounds the article doesn't reach at all, and subsection (d) puts "aircraft and airport activity conducted in accordance with federal laws and regulations" on that list alongside railway locomotives, law enforcement activity and emergency signals. Because federal aviation authority and noise-certification standards occupy the field over aircraft operations, Orange County's Environmental Protection Division cannot cite an airline, charter operator or Orlando International Airport itself for exceeding chapter 15's decibel limits.

The county instead manages the effects of airport noise through a separate ordinance, Article XV of chapter 9, the Airport Noise Impact Areas regulation. Section 9-601 states its purpose as protecting people and property located near Orlando International Airport (OIA) or Orlando Executive Airport (OEA) and other locations that receive noise considered objectionable to the recipients, while preserving the operational stability of the airports. That article works by establishing aircraft noise/land-use control zones under § 9-603 that layer additional development standards onto the county's normal zoning districts inside the mapped noise contours; it supplements rather than overrides the underlying zoning classification, and where it conflicts with another part of the Code, the airport-noise regulation controls.