Everett, WA Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Chapter 20.08 EMC is Everett's general noise-control ordinance, enforced by the administrator (the chief of police or building official, or a designee, under EMC 20.08.020) using both a decibel-based standard for fixed sources and a "plainly audible" standard for episodic noise. But EMC 20.08.100 carves out fourteen categories of noise that are exempt from the whole chapter "at all times," and the first one on the list is aircraft: noise from aircraft in flight and airport sounds directly related to flight operations. That exemption sits alongside others for railroad equipment, federal military facilities (relevant given Naval Station Everett), watercraft and float planes, emergency equipment, and noise covered by a lawfully issued variance or SEPA determination.

Ground-side aircraft noise gets a narrower, time-limited pass: EMC 20.08.110(B) separately exempts noise from aircraft engine testing and maintenance not related to flight operations, but only during daytime hours, seven a.m. to ten p.m. on weekdays and nine a.m. to ten p.m. on weekends and holidays, the same daytime window that covers temporary construction noise and blasting under that section. Outside those daytime hours, ground-based engine testing and maintenance noise is not automatically exempt and could be measured against the environmental sound limits in EMC 20.08.040.

The city adopted state noise law by reference in EMC 20.08.015, incorporating Chapter 70A.20 RCW and the Department of Ecology's maximum environmental noise level regulations under Chapter 173-60 WAC, but aircraft noise sits outside that framework too because federal law occupies the field of flight-path and in-flight aircraft noise regulation.