Lancaster County, NE Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

054 conditions every Battery Energy Storage System special permit in the AG district on compliance with a sound-level table keyed to the zoning of the land actually receiving the noise, not the BESS site itself. ). Noise-sensitive zones, defined by the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department to cover churches, schools, day cares, hospitals, elder housing and mobile home courts built after October 29, 1979, plus land zoned AGR, get a stricter 60/50 dBA split. and 50 dBA overnight. Commercial-zoned land is held to 70 dBA around the clock, and industrial-zoned land to 75 dBA around the clock.

All limits use a ten-minute Leq (equivalent sound level), measured at or within the receiving property's boundary with an ANSI Type II sound level meter. If a city, village or other ordinance sets a different limit for the same receiving land, that other limit controls instead of Table 1. The Planning Commission can also add other sound-related conditions it finds necessary to protect public health and safety. This BESS-specific table, added by Resolution No. R-25-0057 on September 2, 2025, is the only numeric decibel schedule in the county's zoning resolution; it governs battery storage noise, not general community noise.