Fountain, CO Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

14's Industrial and Commercial Performance Standards adopted by Ordinance No. 1742 on January 14, 2020, sets the zoning code's only numeric decibel ceiling. Subsection (A)(6) requires that 'the volume of sound inherently and recurrently generated' by an industrial or commercial use not exceed 60 decibels, measured at any point along the property's boundary line, with a five-decibel increase tolerated for no more than 15 minutes in any one-hour period. The standard sits alongside sister limits in the same section covering vibration imperceptible to an ordinary person outside the property line, exterior lighting shielded from public streets and residential areas, smoke capped at Ringelmann No.

2 grains per cubic foot of flue gas, and odors detectible outside the property boundary. 020(A)(1), not the citywide noise-nuisance ordinance that governs neighbor-to-neighbor and residential noise complaints. Every industrial use covered by this chapter must first appear on a site development plan approved by the zoning administrator, which is where compliance with the decibel ceiling, along with the chapter's other nuisance-prevention standards, gets reviewed before the use begins operating.