Wyoming, MI Noise Ordinances: Aircraft Noise (2026)

Aircraft noise affecting Wyoming residents sits squarely inside a federal-preemption framework. Under 49 U.S.C. Section 40103, the United States has 'exclusive sovereignty of airspace,' and the Supreme Court in City of Burbank v. Lockheed Air Terminal, 411 U.S. 624 (1973), held that federal law preempts even time-of-day curfews imposed by a non-proprietor host municipality. The proper noise-management framework is the FAA's 14 CFR Part 150 Airport Noise Compatibility Planning program, voluntarily entered by airport operators. The Kent County Department of Aeronautics initiated a Part 150 Study in 1988, producing federally accepted Noise Exposure Maps and a federally approved Noise Compatibility Program. The Department then updated the NEMs in 1999/2000, receiving federal acceptance on December 27, 2000 (Federal Register notice, January 17, 2001). GRR is the second-busiest airport in Michigan after Detroit Metropolitan and covers 3,127 acres in Cascade Township, approximately 13 miles southeast of downtown Grand Rapids and 8 to 10 miles east-northeast of central Wyoming. The airport is owned by the Kent County Board of Commissioners and managed by the independent Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority (created 2015). Wyoming itself does not appoint members to the airport authority board. Low-flying complaints alleging violations of 14 CFR Section 91.119 minimum altitudes go to the FAA Grand Rapids Flight Standards District Office, not to Wyoming Police. Civilian helicopter, medevac (Spectrum Health/Corewell West Michigan operates AeroMed), and law-enforcement air operations are independently authorized under federal regulations.