Chapel Hill, NC Short-Term Rentals: Noise Rules (2026)

Section 6.27.5(d) does not set separate STR-only decibel limits; it incorporates Chapter 11, Article III of the Code of Ordinances wholesale. That article's section 11-39 caps steady-state sound at the property boundary at 50 dBA daytime and 45 dBA nighttime for residential uses, with nighttime running 11:01 p.m. to 6:59 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 12:01 a.m. to 6:59 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Section 11-39.1 separately bans nuisance noise regardless of decibel level, listing noisy parties, yelling, amplified music, and security alarms left sounding more than twenty minutes as examples.

Under section 11-42(b), the town will not cite a general nuisance-noise violation unless it is reported at least twice, twenty minutes apart, by different complainants at two different locations, unless the noise is so obviously a nuisance that a reasonable person would recognize it. Chapel Hill also layers an STR-specific safeguard on top: section 6.27.5(c) requires every STR to designate a local responsible party who must be reachable around the clock and respond to complaints within two hours, with contact information posted in the unit and matching the STR permit; repeated failure to respond can cost the operator the permit.

Penalties for a noise violation escalate under section 11-43 from a warning or $25 for a first offense up to $500 for a fourth or later offense within twelve months, and a violation is also a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $250 fine or ten days in jail.