Champaign County, IL Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Section 3.2.F of Champaign County's Public Nuisance Ordinance makes it a public nuisance to generate noise, discernable by a person of average sensibility inside any dwelling or lodging unit, between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., when that noise is of an intensity, tone, characteristic, frequency or duration not customarily associated with the uses permitted in the zoning district where the dwelling sits. Construction is listed first among the covered activities (Section 3.2.F.1), alongside operation of powered tools or equipment (F.2), motor vehicles on private property (F.3), bells, sirens, whistles or horns (F.4), sound amplification devices (F.5) and keeping a domestic animal (F.6).

The rule applies only in unincorporated Champaign County, outside Champaign, Urbana, Rantoul, Savoy and Mahomet; those cities set their own construction-hour rules. Because the standard turns on whether the noise is 'customarily associated' with the district's permitted uses rather than a fixed decibel number, complaints are evaluated case by case by the Zoning Administrator, who investigates under Section 4.1 and can issue a notice of violation giving the responsible contractor or property owner at least 15 days to stop the activity, though an ongoing violation can be ordered to stop immediately (Section 4.3.D).

A first notice can be settled by paying the $100 minimum fine (Section 6.3); an unresolved or repeated violation goes to the Champaign County State's Attorney, who can pursue a circuit court fine of $100 to $500 per offense on a first conviction and $200 to $500 on any later one, with every day the noise continues counted as a separate offense (Sections 6.1.B, 6.4). A person aggrieved by a Zoning Administrator decision can appeal to the county's Environment and Land Use Committee within 15 days (Section 5.1).