Bonner County, ID Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

Section 12-421 of the Bonner County zoning title, Performance Standards for All Uses, requires that noise due to volume, frequency or beat be muffled or otherwise controlled once it counts as objectionable. The subsection sets three numeric thresholds, each measured at the property line of the lot or parcel developed with the use: greater than sixty (60) decibels for residential land use, greater than sixty five (65) decibels for commercial land use, and greater than seventy (70) decibels for industrial land use. Air raid sirens and related apparatus used solely for public purposes are exempt.

The subsection prints one figure per land use and no separate daytime or nighttime number, so the same limit applies at every hour. The standard also sits inside a broader performance rule: a use permitted by Title 12 can be undertaken and maintained if acceptable measures and safeguards reduce dangerous and objectionable conditions to acceptable limits under the listed requirements.

Section 12-421 H lets the planning director, prior to giving zoning approval, require statements and plans showing how objectionable elements in processing and equipment operations will be eliminated or reduced to acceptable limits. Section 12-421 I requires that methods for determining whether an objectionable element exists conform to standard measurement procedures published by the American Standards Institute, the Manufacturing Chemists' Association, the United States bureau of mines and the health authority. Neighboring performance standards in the same section cover vibration, which is not permitted if discernible without detection instruments on any adjoining lot or property, and fire hazards, air pollution and water pollution.