Middletown, OH Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Section 648.11, Middletown's private-property noise ordinance, lists exemptions from its numeric decibel limits in division (d). Among them: "Power tools, landscaping and yard maintenance equipment, and construction equipment being operated between the consecutive hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. in any 24-hour period" (§ 648.11(d)(6)). Because the exemption is time-bound, running construction equipment outside 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. loses the exemption and the equipment's noise is then measured against the section's ordinary prima facie thresholds: no more than 50 dB(A) beyond the property line between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., or 70 dB(A) between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. (§ 648.11(c)(1)-(2)).

Other exemptions in the same division cover warning and alarm devices, authorized emergency vehicles, emergency repair work necessary to restore property to a safe condition, and City Manager-approved public improvement project construction noise regardless of hour (§ 648.11(d)(1)-(4)). The construction-hours exemption was added along with the rest of § 648.11 by Ord. O2021-91, passed November 2, 2021, and works together with the general prohibition in § 648.11(c) against noise that disturbs the quiet, comfort or repose of persons of ordinary sensibilities.