Jacksonville, NC Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Section 5-22, enacted by Ordinance No. 2012-63 in November 2012 and amended by Ordinance No. 2022-07 in January 2022, regulates any excavating, demolition, alteration, new construction, repair or rehabilitation activity happening inside the city limits and within 200 feet of a residential dwelling unit that is also inside the city. The regulation applies regardless of whether the property owner, a hired contractor, or anyone else is doing the work. Permitted hours run Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., with no adjustment for daylight saving time, Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Four narrow activities are exempt from the clock entirely: pouring a dwelling unit's slab, non-mechanized landscaping, non-mechanized exterior painting, and interior work performed after the doors and windows are already installed. Even during permitted hours, Jacksonville's separate noise ordinance continues to apply in full, so loud equipment can still draw a citation on volume grounds inside the allowed window. The section states plainly that enforcement rests on citizen complaint, meaning code enforcement responds to a specific report rather than patrolling job sites on its own initiative. A conviction is a Class 3 misdemeanor under G.S. § 14-4, fined up to $500 at the court's discretion.