Walker County, GA Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Section 16-489(e) of the Walker County Code lists loud, disturbing, and unnecessary noises that count as a public nuisance the moment they happen, without the usual 30-day waiting period the rest of chapter 16, article IV applies to other complaints like blight or debris. Subsection (5) covers construction-type work, specifically the erection, excavation, demolition, alteration, or repair of any building or structure, and bars it near residential dwellings between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. The ordinance carves out only one exception: work done out of urgent necessity in the interest of public safety, and even that exception requires the contractor or property owner to first secure a permit from the County Police, not the Planning Office that handles the amplified-sound exception in subsection (4).

Enforcement follows the rest of article IV: a County Police Officer or other Law Enforcement Official can write a citation immediately or, for a recurring problem, first serve a written notice to abate under section 16-491 giving 15 days to stop the after-hours work. Anyone convicted faces the Code's general penalty in section 1-13: up to $1,000.00 in fines, up to six months in jail, or both, and every additional day the crew keeps working past a notice deadline is charged as a separate offense.

Because the rule targets the vicinity of residential dwellings rather than the whole county, a contractor working a purely commercial or industrial site outside residential areas falls outside this particular restriction, though other Code provisions may still apply to that work.