Dane County, WI Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

Ch. 102(6) puts noise control for non-residential and commercial-scale uses on a discretionary track rather than a blanket ordinance. Under (6)(a), town boards and the zoning committee 'may, as necessary, set decibel limits appropriate to the use and location' as a condition on a conditional use permit or a conditional rezone petition. Subsection (b) extends the same discretion to rezones into the General Commercial, Heavy Commercial, Limited Commercial, or Hamlet Mixed-Use districts, the zoning categories most likely to host industrial or heavy-commercial noise sources. Subsection (d) directs that any limits imposed be set on the dB(A) scale and be appropriate to the background noise level of the surrounding area, and to the nature, duration and repetition of the proposed use, pointing decision-makers to the code's Table 1, a reference guide of common sound levels, from a library at 35 dBA and a quiet suburban night at 40 dBA, up through a gas lawn mower at 100 dBA, a diesel truck at 50 feet at 90 dBA, and the threshold of pain at 140 dBA.

One fixed, non-discretionary rule sits inside the same subsection: (c) requires that noise abatement at blasting sites not conflict with or exceed the requirements of SPS 307 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code. Because the decibel condition is attached to the individual conditional use permit, a violation is enforced the same way as any other CUP condition, through the revocation procedure in ch. 101(7)(g), including written notice and a 10-day correction window.