Jackson, NJ Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Before 2022, Chapter 291's general restricted-uses section, § 291-9C, barred construction and demolition between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. on weekdays and 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. on weekends and federal holidays, but let a contractor keep working past those hours if the work stayed within the sound level limits of Tables I, II and III. The Township Council closed that loophole with Ordinance No. 10-22, adding § 291-1.1: construction and demolition work is barred from 8:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. weekdays and 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. on weekends and any federally recognized holiday, and the new curfew applies regardless of the noise generated.

A contractor cannot argue a quiet generator or an electric tool complies with the chapter's decibel tables; the clock alone controls. Emergency work such as repairing a broken water main or downed line is exempt under the chapter's general emergency-work definition in § 291-2. Jackson's Noise Control Officers and Noise Control Investigators may issue a notice of violation or a notice of penalty assessment under § 291-11 to any crew still on site after the cutoff. Continuing work is a distinct offense for each day it occurs, and the recipient of a penalty assessment can request a hearing in Municipal Court.

Because § 291-1.1 came four decades after the chapter's original 1983 adoption and was rewritten again in 2015, a homeowner hiring a contractor in Jackson Township should confirm the crew is working from the current schedule rather than the older § 291-9C hours still printed elsewhere in the same chapter.