Highlands County, FL Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Section 5.6-105(2) makes it a violation to operate equipment used in construction activity, building, excavation, grading, pile driving, pneumatic hammering, demolition, dredging, or building alteration or repair work in a manner plainly audible across a real property line of any residential zoning district or residential area between 9:00 p.m. of one day and 6:00 a.m. of the next, with a stated carve-out for emergency work. Read together with the ordinance's exceptions list, Section 5.6-107(2) confirms the flip side of that curfew: usual noises of construction and operation of construction equipment between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. are exempt from the noise and sound level regulations altogether, so a contractor working standard daytime hours is not exposed even if neighbors find the noise loud.

Section 5.6-107(1) separately protects genuine emergency work, defined in Section 5.6-103 as work to prevent or alleviate physical trauma or property damage from an emergency, from the curfew at any hour. No sound level meter reading is required to cite a nighttime construction violation; the plainly-audible test in Section 5.6-105 stands on its own, distinct from the numeric Table I limits in Section 5.6-106 that apply to other, unlisted noise sources.