Porterville, CA Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Municipal Code section 18-90.6 lists exemptions from the city's noise article, and subsection F exempts construction noise, private or public, within 500 feet of the residential, school, hospital, church or library uses named in section 18-90.4, but only if the activity doesn't start before 6:00 a.m. or run past 9:00 p.m. on weekdays, or start before 7:00 a.m. or run past 5:00 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday. The section draws a parallel line for ordinary yard work: subsection G exempts residential-property maintenance noise between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on weekdays, and 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekends, a longer weekend window than construction gets.

Once construction noise falls outside its permitted hours, it is no longer exempt, so it is measured against the standard exterior limits of section 18-90.4 (45 dBA nighttime hourly average, 65 dBA peak) or the residential interior limits of section 18-90.5, and any exceedance is treated as an unlawful public nuisance under section 18-90.3(B). The exemption also does not apply outside the 500-foot buffer from a protected use, so isolated construction farther from housing, schools, hospitals, churches or libraries is not subject to this hour restriction under this section.