Lincoln, NE Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

Lincoln Municipal Code § 8.24.090(a)(1) covers operating, playing, or permitting the operation or playing of any radio, television, phonograph, drum, musical instrument, sound amplifier, or similar device that produces, reproduces, or amplifies sound. The closing phrase, "similar device," keeps the list open, so equipment that amplifies or reproduces sound falls under the rule even when it is not named. The word "permitting" matters too. The person who allows a device to be played is covered along with the person playing it.

The rule is triggered when the device is used in such a manner as to create a noise disturbance across a residential real property boundary. What counts is the sound that crosses the line onto residential property, not how loud the device is where it sits.

Lincoln then sets the standards by the clock. For the time period 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. the standard is 60 db(a). For the time period 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. it is 50 db(a), a drop of 10 from the daytime figure. Each standard is written as a "maximum three minute Leq," so the number is tied to a three-minute measurement. The quoted standards name only clock times and give no separate figures for weekends.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department administers and enforces the citywide noise control program. Under § 8.24.040 the program also reaches three miles beyond the city limits, so a household just outside Lincoln but inside that three-mile area is held to the same 60 and 50 db(a) standards.