Sumter County, SC Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Sumter County's noise regulations sit in Chapter 14, Article III, enacted by Ord. No. 97-324 in 1997 and amended in 1999 and 2005. within 50 feet of such a property disturbs its occupants. Subsection (d), however, lists a series of carve-outs from the entire article, including noise on construction sites, emergency signal devices, sanitation material handling, licensed game hunting, refuse compacting vehicles, government activities, and, specifically, airport and airplane noise. That exemption covers operations tied to Shaw Air Force Base, one of the county's defining features, as well as general aviation traffic at the county's airports, meaning residents near either field cannot use the county noise ordinance to complain about aircraft engine noise, however loud or late.

The Sheriff's Department enforces the noise article under § 14-135 for the conduct it does cover, but has no authority to cite aircraft noise under this chapter because the county council wrote the exemption into the ordinance itself; any relief for aircraft noise would have to come from federal aviation noise-abatement channels rather than county code enforcement.