West Des Moines, IA Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Section 4-7-8 of the Noise Control Regulations lists nineteen categories of sound that the City exempts from the maximum permissible levels set in section 4-7-7, and item 10 of subsection A covers construction. The emission of sound during demolition work or construction work for which a building permit, grading permit, or demolition permit is required, or for which a development plan has been approved, is exempt from the numeric caps. That exemption is not unlimited: where the sound originates within three hundred feet of a residential land use or a noise-sensitive land use, the exemption applies only between seven o'clock in the morning and ten o'clock at night.

Outside that window, and inside the three-hundred-foot buffer, construction noise loses its exemption and is measured against the standard maximum permissible sound levels in section 4-7-7, which for a nearby residential or noise-sensitive property run from 65 dBA down to 55 dBA depending on the time of day for unamplified sound. Subsection B of section 4-7-8 clarifies that being exempt from the decibel caps does not excuse a contractor from separately needing a sound equipment permit if amplified equipment is used on site. The city clerk and the chief of police share enforcement of the noise chapter under section 4-7-15, and the construction exemption itself was adopted by Ordinance 2053 in September 2014, effective January 1, 2015.