Charles County, MD Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

That exemption sits inside a longer list of activities carved out of the chapter altogether: motor vehicles licensed for public roads, emergency operations, and sound equipment used by public service companies or government agencies are also excluded under § 260-4(A)(2), (5), and (12). Because military and general-aviation flight operations occur near county land, Charles County addresses that noise a different way, through disclosure rather than decibel limits. ' So a resident near a licensed airport or military airfield has no decibel-based recourse under Chapter 260, since § 260-4(A)(3) removes aircraft operations from its reach entirely, and any protection instead comes from federal and state aviation noise regulation or, for military-adjacent property, from the point-of-sale notice required under § 265-4.

The exemption is narrow in one respect: it only covers airports licensed by the Maryland State Aviation Administration, so noise from an unlicensed private airstrip or informal landing area would not automatically fall outside the general Table 260-1 limits in § 260-3.