West Haven, CT Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

West Haven's Noise Control Ordinance, Chapter 154, was adopted by the City Council on 10-14-2003 and approved by the State of Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection that December. Section 154-5E lists exemptions from the decibel standards, and paragraph (6) covers noise created by any aircraft flight operations which are specifically preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration. The wording is narrow: it is not a blanket exemption for everything aviation-related, only for flight operations that federal law has preempted.

A second paragraph reaches aircraft from another direction. Section 154-5E(10) exempts sound created by any mobile source of noise and says mobile sources include but are not limited to aircraft, automobiles, trucks and boats. That paragraph then pulls motor vehicles back in: notwithstanding the exemption, motor vehicles are subject to the standards in § 154-7, which incorporates the state motor vehicle noise regulations and limits sound-amplifying devices on or within vehicles to the § 154-5 levels.

In practice this means Chapter 154 gives West Haven residents no decibel limit to invoke against aircraft overflights or flight operations. The city's 45 dBA night limit at a residential receptor and its 80 decibel peak limit on nighttime impulse noise are written for stationary and other local sources. Ground-based equipment is different, and the chapter still governs it: stationary engines fall under § 154-6C, and idling engines on mobile sources fall under the three-minute limit in § 154-6B.

The Director of Health inspects noise sources under § 154-9. Under § 154-12C, any provision of the chapter that conflicts with the Connecticut General Statutes or the Public Health Code is repealed, and the state law takes precedence.