Unlike many counties, Howard County uses numeric decibel limits. Through Section 8.900 it adopts Maryland's COMAR 26.02.03 table: noise received at a residential property may not exceed 65 dBA during the day or 55 dBA at night. Air-conditioning and heat-pump equipment have their own caps.
Howard County's noise standard is measurable, not judgment-based. Section 8.900 forbids noise received on residential property above the COMAR 26.02.03 environmental-noise levels, and COMAR 26.02.03.02 Table 1 lists the maximum allowable levels by land use: Industrial 75 dBA day and night; Commercial 67 dBA day, 62 dBA night; Residential 65 dBA day, 55 dBA night. Howard's ordinance adds equipment-specific caps: a person may not cause or permit noise exceeding 70 dBA for air-conditioning equipment, or 75 dBA for heat-pump equipment, at a receiving residential property. Construction sites get a separate 90 dBA daytime allowance. These figures give code-enforcement and police officers a concrete, meter-based test.
Exceeding the applicable dBA limit is a Section 8.900 violation, enforced by the Police Department (and the health department for commercial or industrial sources) with civil penalties under Title 24: Class E civil offense first, Class D thereafter.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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See how Howard County's decibel limits rules stack up against other locations.
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