Owensboro, KY Noise Ordinances: Leaf Blower Rules (2026)

The City of Owensboro regulates noise in Owensboro Municipal Code § 17-8, adopted by the Board of Commissioners as Ord. No. 64-99. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful to make, cause, continue or permit any excessive or unreasonably loud noise or raucous sound in any residential zone within the city, judged by the time, date, place and nature of the sound. Subsection (b) separately covers sound systems in motor vehicles.

Leaf blowers are handled in subsection (c), titled Exceptions. It says the prohibitions in the section do not apply, and that it is a defense to any prosecution, if an otherwise unlawful noise was emitted from listed sources. Paragraph (4) lists any domestic power equipment, including but not limited to lawn mowers, weed eaters, blowers, mulching equipment or edgers, commonly used for routine house-hold and/or lawn care maintenance. Blowers are named outright, so a homeowner running one on a yard is inside the exception.

Paragraph (5) adds any commercial power equipment operated in the ordinary course of business. That covers a landscaping crew or property maintenance contractor working a customer's lot as part of its business. Paragraph (6), a separate exception, exempts city service equipment such as brush chippers, vacuum leaf loaders and street sweepers.

Section 17-8 prints no permitted hours for blowers, no decibel limit and no restriction on gas-powered versus electric models. The only test in the text is that the equipment is domestic power equipment used for routine household or lawn care, or commercial power equipment used in the ordinary course of business. Noise from a blower that falls outside those descriptions is judged under subsection (a) like any other loud sound.

The exceptions run to subsection (b) as well, since the section says the prohibitions set forth herein do not apply. For sound that is not exempt, the city manager can grant a special variance under subsection (d). That application must be filed no less than twenty calendar days before the variance is to take effect. Enforcement of the noise section falls to the Owensboro Police Department and city citation officers.