Dixmont, ME Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Section 9.21 of the Dixmont Site Plan Review Ordinance contains the town's construction-hours rule. Item 1 requires the development to control noise levels so that it will not create a nuisance for neighboring parties. Item 2 is the hours bar: no person shall engage in construction activities on a site abutting any residential use between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. The bar attaches to the site's location next to a residential use, not to the zoning of the project.

The same section lists exemptions from the noise regulations. The first is noises created by construction and temporary maintenance activities on the project between 6:00a.m. and 10:00 p.m., as the ordinance prints the times. The second is the noises of safety signals, warning devices, emergency pressure relief valves and any other emergency activity. The third is traffic noise on public roads or railroads not related to construction activity. The ordinance prints the bar and the exemption as two separate windows and does not state how they interact.

The rule reaches only projects that need site plan approval. Section 2.1 sends new nonresidential buildings over 2,500 square feet or 40 feet in height, expansions of more than 2,500 square feet, new nonresidential uses including gravel pits and land used for outdoor festivals or mass gatherings, conversions between uses, and more than 2,500 square feet of paving to the Planning Board. Section 2.2(1) exempts the construction, alteration or enlargement of a single family or two-family dwelling, including accessory buildings and structures, so ordinary home construction is not covered by Section 9.21.

Other Dixmont instruments carry their own sound or light-hour limits. The Solar Ordinance, Section 7(11), limits industrial and commercial solar noise to 10 decibels above the preconstruction background level, and Section 7(12) bars non-required lighting between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Neither sets construction hours.