Aurora, CO Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Aurora regulates construction noise through a note to the noise table in its Unified Development Ordinance, not through a blanket construction curfew. Note [1] to Table 4.11-1 in UDO § 146-4.11.2.E gives construction work a different decibel standard for each part of the day by borrowing the limits of other zoning districts.

From 7 am to 5 pm, construction work is subject to the standards applicable to the I-2 district, an industrial limit of 80 dBA. This is the loosest block.

From 5 pm to 9 pm, the standards applicable to the I-1 district take over, an industrial limit of 70 dBA. Work may continue into the evening, but under the tighter ceiling.

Between 9 pm and 7 am, the borrowed industrial limits no longer apply. Construction must meet the standards based on adjacent land uses. Next to residential property that standard is just 45 dBA. The overnight limit therefore turns on what sits beside the job site, and a project bordering homes faces the residential figure.

The practical effect is that Aurora has no fixed clock-out time for crews, yet loud nighttime work next to homes is effectively barred. The trigger for a violation is a sound-level exceedance measured at the neighboring property line, not the hour on the clock.

Trash compactor trucks get their own sentence in the note. Their operation is subject to the standards applicable to the I-2 district at all times, so the 80 dBA standard governs them around the clock and the evening and overnight step-downs written for construction work do not change it.

Residents looking up the rule should start with the UDO, not the City Code. City Code § 94-107 covers general "unreasonably loud" noise, but the time-graduated decibel table for construction is UDO § 146-4.11.2.E, Table 4.11-1.