New Brunswick, NJ Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

New Brunswick Municipal Code § 8.28.040 sets the maximum permissible sound levels for stationary sources in Table I, measured at or within the real property line of the receiving property. The table splits the day at 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Sound reaching a residential property is capped at 55 dBA from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. when the source is on residential property, and at 50 dBA from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. For a source inside a multi-dwelling-unit building, the cap on another dwelling is 45 dBA by day and 40 dBA at night. Commercial receiving properties are capped at 65 dBA and industrial receiving properties at 75 dBA at all times. When a noise control officer measures inside a dwelling unit of a multi-dwelling-unit building, all exterior doors and windows are closed and the reading is taken in the center of the room.

Separate night hours sit in § 8.28.050. Loudspeakers and public address systems are barred between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. the following day when the sound creates a noise disturbance across a residential real property line. Loading, unloading and handling of boxes, crates, containers, building materials, garbage cans and refuse is barred between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. on a following weekday, and between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. when the following day is a legal holiday or weekend day, except by permit; municipal garbage collection is excluded. A barking dog counts as a noise disturbance when it barks continually for ten minutes or intermittently for thirty minutes unless provoked. Under § 8.28.070(C), a vehicle within 150 feet of a residential area cannot idle for longer than three minutes in any hour between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., other than for traffic congestion or emergency work.

Section 8.28.050(A) also bars any noise disturbance at any hour: a sound that endangers the safety or health of any person, disturbs a reasonable person of normal sensitivities, or endangers property. Noncommercial public speaking and public assembly on public space are exempt. Domestic power tools and lawn mowers with a muffler are exempt from Table I between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekends and legal holidays, if they produce less than 85 dBA at a residential real property line. An exterior burglar alarm must stop within fifteen minutes of activation.