Macon-Bibb County, GA Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

The Comprehensive Land Development Resolution's Chapter 20A creates airport hazard and noise regulations around Herbert Smart Downtown Airport. 04 divides the area shown on the county's Noise Zone Map into Noise Control Zones 1, 2 and 3 and restricts what may be built as a permitted or conditional use in each. Zone 1, farthest from flight paths, is reserved for residential uses, finance and insurance services, personal and business services, government and educational facilities, indoor cultural venues, and parks. Zones 2 and 3, nearer the runway, are where manufacturing, transportation and utility uses, contract construction services, and resource production and extraction (including agriculture) are steered instead; wholesale and retail trade is confined to Zone 2.

05, bars entirely, within 5,000 feet of any approach surface, churches, schools, lodges, theaters and other assembly uses, multifamily buildings over four units, hospitals, noxious emitters of smoke or light, and any use that would attract birds into the flight path. 13, and the request must also go to the Federal Aviation Administration for review and comment before Macon-Bibb County can act on it. A variance is granted only if the property owner either installs soundproofing approved by the bureau of inspection and fees or, in place of soundproofing, records a notice in the property's deed disclosing that a variance was granted without it.

Nearly identical noise-zone frameworks exist for the other two airfields serving the county, Middle Georgia Regional Airport (Chapter 20B) and Robins Air Force Base (Chapter 20C), all administered by the Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission.