Greenville, NC Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

The Greenville City Council's noise ordinance, City Code Chapter 12, Article 5, sets maximum sound levels by land use in Table 1 and Table 2 of Section 12-5-4 and enforces them under Section 12-5-5. ' The exemption is narrow in one respect: it only reaches aircraft that are properly equipped, meaning operated with standard manufacturer equipment, and it expressly excludes scale model aircraft, which remain subject to the ordinary noise limits like any other sound source. Because the carve-out is written into the exceptions section rather than a standalone aviation-noise chapter, Greenville has chosen not to set its own decibel ceiling for flight operations, deferring instead to whatever operational and equipment standards the aircraft itself is already required to meet.

The Greenville Police Department is the enforcing agency for Chapter 12, Article 5, and it applies the Section 12-5-7 factors, such as time of day, proximity to residential structures and volume, only to noise sources that are not otherwise excepted. A resident bothered by helicopter or fixed-wing traffic near Pitt-Greenville Airport therefore has no local noise-limit remedy through GPD; the exemption was last amended by Ordinance No. 18-014, Section 1, passed March 8, 2018, and traces to the original noise ordinance, Ordinance No. 05-108, passed September 8, 2005.