Newark, OH Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

Section 634.05 of the Noise Control Ordinance gives the City of Newark, Ohio a numeric sound standard. It operates irrespective of whether a source also violates Section 634.04, and it bans anyone from operating, causing or permitting on private property any source of sound that exceeds the Table 1 limit for the receiving land use category. The measurement point is at or within the property boundary of the receiving land use, so the reading is taken where the neighbor's property begins, not at the source.

Table 1 has three rows. Residential land use is limited to 60 dBA from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and 50 dBA from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. of the following day. A retail area is limited to 70 dBA at all times. Section 634.02(22) defines a residential area as land zoned R-S (Suburban Residence District), R-1 (Single-Family Residence District), R-2 (General Residence District) or R-3 (Multifamily residence District), and Section 634.02(9) defines a retail area as any area zoned in a land use category other than those residential categories. Section 634.02(1) defines dBA as the A-weighted sound level read on a sound level meter.

Section 634.06(b) lists what the Table 1 levels do not apply to: construction, emergency signaling and domestic power tool activities covered by Sections 634.04(a)(7), (8) and (11), refuse collection vehicles, and railway locomotives and railway cars. Section 634.06(a) also removes organized school-related programs, Municipal-authorized parades and Municipal-sanctioned concerts in public parks from Sections 634.04 and 634.05.

A higher tier applies to dangerous sound. Section 634.07 sets Table 2 limits for continuous sound measured at fifty feet, starting at 90 dBA for 24 hours and rising to 108 dBA for 22 minutes, and Table 3 limits for impulsive sound, starting at 145 dB for one repetition per twenty-four hours. Places of public entertainment above 95 dba must post the hearing-impairment warning in Section 634.04(a)(2)A.