Indio, CA Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

The City of Indio does not — and legally cannot — set its own decibel limits or curfews for aircraft in flight or for airport operations. Control of aircraft noise rests with the Federal Aviation Administration under the Noise Control Act of 1972 and related federal law. The U.S. Supreme Court in City of Burbank v. Lockheed Air Terminal (1973) held that federal law preempts local regulation of aircraft noise, leaving cities without authority to impose their own flight curfews or in-flight noise limits. Indio's own noise code recognizes this: Section 95C.09(K) exempts from Chapter 95C 'any activity to the extent regulation thereof has been preempted by state or federal law.' That means residents bothered by aircraft over the Coachella Valley — including traffic associated with nearby Bermuda Dunes Airport and Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport — should direct concerns to the FAA or the relevant airport operator rather than expect enforcement under Indio's municipal code. Airport proprietors themselves have only narrow authority and generally must complete an FAA 'Part 161' study to seek any local access or noise restriction, which the FAA rarely approves. Indio's code can still reach ground-based noise that is not an aircraft operation — for example, certain construction or mechanical noise at a facility — but the flight and airport-operations noise itself is a federal matter. In short, there is no City of Indio aircraft-noise ordinance; the governing law is federal.