Bay County, FL Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

Sec. 17-72(b) of the Bay County Code sets numeric sound-level ceilings, measured "at neighboring property lines," that vary by the zoning of the area receiving the noise (the "receptor area") and by time of day. In areas zoned residential and conservation, the limit is 60 dBA between 7:00 a.m. and 9:59 p.m., dropping to 55 dBA overnight between 10:00 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. Areas zoned seasonal resorts, commercial and public/institutional get a higher ceiling: 70 dBA in the daytime window and 65 dBA overnight. Agricultural and industrial receptor areas have the highest and simplest standard, a flat 75 dBA that applies at all times, with no day/night split. The rule applies to "the owner of a parcel of real property or of a unit or units in a multi-unit building" and to "any person" causing the sound on public streets, so the source of the noise does not have to be on the same property as the receptor.

Sec. 17-72(h) layers a separate standard on top of the zone-based limits for impulsive sound, defined elsewhere in the article as "either a single pressure peak or a single burst (multiple pressure peaks) that has a duration of less than one second." Between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., impulsive sound cannot equal or exceed 80 dBA. Overnight, an impulsive sound that happens fewer than four times in an hour is held to that same 80 dBA ceiling, but once impulsive sound repeats four or more times in an hour it is no longer treated as impulsive and must instead meet the ordinary zone-based limits of subsection (b), the lower nighttime numbers of 55, 65 or 75 dBA depending on the zone.