Lower Merion, PA Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Chapter 105 of the Lower Merion Township Code regulates noise through the decibel chart in Section 105-3, but Section 105-6.A lists activities exempt from the entire chapter subject to any restrictions stated for each. Item 105-6.A(12), added by Ordinance No. 4290 on April 17, 2024, exempts aircraft and railway transportation with no attached time window, decibel ceiling, or other qualifying condition, unlike the exemptions for construction (105-6.A(4)), refuse collection (105-6.A(2)), or generator testing (105-6.A(7)), each of which carries hour limits. That means neither the residential 65 dBA daytime/50 dBA nighttime ceiling nor the nonresidential 70/55 dBA ceiling in Section 105-3 applies to noise from planes, trains, or related rail operations passing through or over the Township.

Section 105-6.B states that where another Township Code provision sets a stricter, conflicting noise standard, the more restrictive language governs, but no other chapter supplied for this jurisdiction imposes a township-level aircraft or rail noise standard; aircraft noise sits within federal aviation regulation and rail noise falls under federal rail law, which the Township exemption implicitly recognizes by declining to regulate it locally. Residents with aircraft or rail noise concerns therefore have no Chapter 105 complaint process available to them; the Township's role in that noise stops at the exemption itself.