New Britain, CT Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Article V of Chapter 16 sets New Britain's general noise limits: Sec. 16-104 divides the city into three noise zones tied to the zoning map (residential, commercial, industrial), and Sec. 16-105 caps emissions at levels ranging from 45 dBA at night in a residential zone up to 70 dBA from an industrial emitter into an industrial zone, with a separate rule barring residential noise audible beyond 300 feet by day or 100 feet at night. Sec. 16-106, titled "Exceptions," removes several categories from that scheme entirely, and subsection (b)(4) lists "noise created by any aircraft flight operations which are specifically preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration." That single clause is the whole of New Britain's aircraft-noise "rule": the city does not attempt to regulate flight noise because it recognizes the FAA holds exclusive authority over aircraft operations under federal law, so no local decibel limit, curfew or flight-path restriction from Chapter 16 applies to planes or helicopters overhead.

Complaints about aircraft noise in New Britain therefore fall outside the Code of Ordinances and must go through the FAA or the operator of whatever airport or airfield the aircraft used, not the city's noise-control enforcement, health department, or police department, none of which Sec. 16-108's penalty schedule authorizes to cite an aircraft operator under this article.