Wayne County, NC Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Wayne County's general noise article, Chapter 30 Article III (§§ 30-140-154), bans disturbing noise county-wide, but § 30-149 carves out a list of exceptions that are "exempt from the provisions of this article" entirely. Two of those exceptions cover aviation directly: § 30-149(5) exempts noise from the normal operation of properly equipped aircraft, and § 30-149(20) exempts noise emanating from a public airport or surrounding areas from normal airport operations. A third, § 30-149(19), separately exempts noise emanating from a military base or surrounding area due to military operations, language that speaks directly to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, whose flight line and approach and departure corridors sit inside the county.

Because the exemptions are written into the operative article rather than left to enforcement discretion, the Sheriff's Office, which administers the noise ordinance under § 30-141, has no authority to cite normal aircraft, airport or military-base noise as a violation of §§ 30-148 or 30-150, regardless of how loud or frequent the flights are. Residents who live under the Seymour Johnson AFB flight path or near Goldsboro-Wayne Municipal Airport cannot use the county noise ordinance to abate normal flight operations; any relief for aviation noise would have to come from federal aviation law, an FAA noise-compatibility program, or the airport's own operating procedures rather than from County Code Chapter 30.