Lassen County, CA Noise Ordinances: Industrial Noise (2026)

Stationary sources - mechanical equipment, generators, industrial operations - are regulated under Section 9.65.040 of the Lassen County Code, which limits noise to the one-hour average sound levels in Table 1 measured at the property line. The 2021 Noise Element's Standard N-1 (Table 7) sets exterior CNEL standards by receiving land use: 90 dBA for industrial, agriculture, resource-extraction and public-right-of-way uses, 75 dBA for commercial/retail, and 65 dBA for residential, recreational and institutional uses. Critically, these limits are applied at the receiving property line, and a louder-allowance source must still not exceed the lower limit of a neighboring sensitive use - for example, a commercial source may be up to 75 dBA CNEL within its own parcel but must not exceed 65 dBA CNEL at any residential property boundary in the vicinity. The Noise Element notes these generation limits are translated into hourly-average (Leq) limits in Section 9.65.040, and new stationary sources must comply with both Standard N-1 and Section 9.65.040. Upon a complaint (Standard N-4), county staff investigate with a sound-level meter and may require the operator to install controls or alter operations to achieve compliance.