Southampton, NY Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

The Town Board's numeric noise standard, § 235-3, sets flat decibel ceilings by zone and time of day across the unincorporated hamlets, Hampton Bays, Water Mill, Bridgehampton, Westhampton, East Quogue, Flanders, Riverside and Noyack. In a residential district, § 235-3.A bars any noise, measured at or beyond the property's lot line, that exceeds 65 dBA's between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., falling to a stricter 50 dBA's from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Commercial and industrial districts are held to higher ceilings under § 235-3.B: 70 dBA by day and 55 dBA at night.

Each zone's standard is paired with an octave-band table so a source that meets the flat dBA number can still violate the code if any single frequency band, from 31.5 Hz up to 8,000 Hz, runs too high; either test alone is sufficient to establish a violation. The standard traces to a 1993 amendment, Local Law No. 1-1993, and applies regardless of the noise source unless one of the § 235-4 exceptions, daytime construction, agriculture, church bells, emergency work and the like, applies. Anyone present among a group whose collective conduct produces noise exceeding these limits is rebuttably presumed under § 235-5 to have participated in the violation.

Because the incorporated villages of Southampton, Sag Harbor, Westhampton Beach, Quogue, North Haven, Sagaponack and West Hampton Dunes each administer their own codes, this decibel table binds only property in the unincorporated Town.