Santa Barbara County, CA Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Santa Barbara County does not have a single broad ordinance fixing the same construction hours for every project in the unincorporated area; instead, limits come from the Grading Code, project conditions of approval, and the nighttime noise chapter. The most direct codified standard is County Code Section 14-22 ('Grading hours; limitation'), which states that no grading work requiring a grading permit (except emergencies) may take place between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. unless the Director of Planning and Development finds the operation is not likely to cause a significant public nuisance and authorizes night operations in writing. In practice, this sets daytime grading hours of 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. For development projects, the County's Noise Element and standard conditions of approval commonly restrict noise-generating construction to roughly 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, but those limits are imposed as project conditions rather than a uniform code section. Separately, Chapter 40 (Nighttime Noise Restrictions) limits loud amplified noise at night countywide. Property owners should confirm the exact hours in their grading permit or land use permit conditions. These are County rules for unincorporated areas only; incorporated cities set their own construction-hour rules.