Cumberland County, NC Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Two sections of the Cumberland County Code of Ordinances exempt aircraft from the county's noise rules rather than regulating aircraft noise directly. Sec. 5-26(8), adopted with the ordinance of June 1, 1998, exempts 'all noises coming from the normal operations of aircraft (not including scale model aircraft) and all noises emanating from the Fayetteville Municipal Airport property within the NEF (Noise Exposure Forecast) zones as established by a survey dated April, 1977, and maintained in the office of the airport manager' from Table 1, the ordinance's general decibel-limit table.

A second, later exemption at Sec. 2(5), part of the October 15, 2012 amendment that created the separate 'loud and disturbing noise' standard in Sec. 1, repeats the carve-out: 'All noises coming from the normal operations of properly equipped aircraft, not including scale model aircraft' are exempted from that standard too. Together the two sections mean ordinary aircraft operations, arrivals, departures and overflights tied to Fayetteville Municipal Airport's mapped noise-exposure zones, sit outside both the numeric decibel table and the newer 'unreasonably loud or disturbing' catch-all.

Neither exemption reaches scale model aircraft, which remain subject to the ordinance's general prohibitions like any other sound source. Because the county has chosen to exempt rather than cap aircraft noise, and federal aviation authority otherwise governs aircraft operations, there is no separate decibel ceiling, curfew or complaint process for aircraft noise anywhere in the unincorporated county's code.