Palatine, IL Noise Ordinances: Leaf Blower Rules (2026)

Village Code § 22-83, titled 'Motorized equipment,' sets the hours during which power lawn and yard equipment can run in the Village of Palatine. Subsection (a) bars operating a lawn mower, leaf blower, edge trimmer, street cleaner, industrial vacuum, or any other motorized equipment between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. on any weekday, and between 9:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. on weekends or holidays, giving residents a slightly longer quiet window on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays than on weekdays. Subsection (b) lists four categories exempt from the restriction: village vehicles engaged in necessary public business, motorized equipment operated during an urgent public health or safety emergency, snow removal equipment at any hour, and vehicles used to maintain a park-district-owned golf course, though even that golf-course exemption has its own tighter window, barred only between 4:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. on weekdays and 4:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. on weekends.

The ordinance traces back to the 1976 Code § 12-39 and has been amended, most recently to add the golf-course carve-out. Because § 22-83 sits in Chapter 22's general offenses article rather than a separate noise chapter, a violation is enforced like any other Chapter 22 offense: the village's general penalty provision, § 22-234, applies a fine set by ordinance or resolution of the village council, plus up to the full cost of abatement, for each violation, and each day a violation continues can be treated as its own separate offense under that chapter's general enforcement approach.