The Maine Agenda › Live in Maine
Noise Ordinances and Quiet Hours by Town in Greater Portland, Maine
Your neighbor is running a table saw at 8:40 on a Sunday morning. Whether that is legal depends entirely on which side of a town line you live on, and the answer is not the one almost every website will tell you.
Search "Portland Maine noise ordinance" and the top results will hand you a tidy number: quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., 50 decibels at night, fines from $100 to $500. That number is wrong in three separate ways, and one of the sites serving it is quoting Portland, Oregon. Portland, Maine does not have residential quiet hours at all.
Here is what each town's own ordinance actually says, read from the ordinance text rather than from a directory summary.
The state number everyone misquotes
Maine has no general statewide noise law that applies to you and your neighbor. What it has is Chapter 375, Section 10 of the Department of Environmental Protection rules, the "Control of Noise" standard, and that rule regulates developments that need Site Location of Development approval. Large projects. Not households.
The DEP standard sets 60 dBA between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and 50 dBA between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. at protected locations, with a 75 dBA ceiling at any hour at the property line, and a tighter 55 dBA day and 45 dBA night limit in genuinely quiet areas where the pre-development ambient level is at or below 45 dBA daytime and 35 dBA nighttime.
Two things follow. First, the day and night boundary in Maine's actual state rule is 7 p.m., not 10 p.m. Second, the rule explicitly steps aside: where a municipality has enacted its own quantifiable standard within 5 dBA that addresses the various types of noise, the local standard applies instead. The state number is a floor for permitted development in towns that have not legislated, not a quiet-hours law for anybody's back yard.
Portland: no quiet hours, and a committee about it
Portland's noise rules live in Chapter 17 of the city code, and the general one is Section 17-17(c), part of the disorderly conduct section. Read the first eleven words carefully: it prohibits loud, unnecessary or unusual noise "in, on, or adjacent to any of the streets, ways or public places." Public places. There is no provision making it an offense to be audible inside a neighbor's dwelling at 2 a.m. from your own living room. That section carries minimum fines of $100 for a first offense, $300 for a second, and $500 for each one after that, plus the city's attorney fees and costs if it prevails. It was last revised in 1993.
Construction is the one area Portland does regulate with a number. Section 17-18 bars construction noise above 50 decibels between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. within 500 feet of any residential, hospital or nursing home building in R-zones, but only from September 1 to May 31. From June 1 through August 31 the crews can run until 8 p.m. In every season, no construction may start before 8 a.m. on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday.
The rest of Chapter 17 is charmingly specific to a working waterfront. Section 17-19 prohibits loading or unloading scrap metal from ships between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Section 17-21 gives a car alarm ten aggregated minutes in any sixty before it becomes a violation, twenty if an actual burglary set it off, and puts the burden on the owner to prove the burglary by clear and convincing evidence. Sections 17-22 through 17-30 are all marked Reserved.
Portland does maintain a standing Sound Oversight Committee, and the city publishes a page titled "Noise Complaint Process." As of July 28, 2026 that page contains a heading and nothing else. If you are looking for the actual process, the ordinance is the only document that answers.
Scarborough: the strictest rules, filed under the wrong name
Scarborough has the most detailed and most enforceable noise rules in the region, and almost no aggregator lists them, because Scarborough does not call it a noise ordinance. It is Chapter 616, the Good Neighbor Ordinance, adopted May 3, 2017, which repealed and replaced two earlier noise ordinances from 2003 and 2007.
Its daytime and nighttime definitions are the only ones in Greater Portland that vary by day of week:
- Monday through Thursday: daytime 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday: daytime 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Sunday: daytime 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
That Sunday line is the practical one. In Scarborough your neighbor's leaf blower is exempt during daytime hours, and Sunday daytime does not begin until 9 a.m. Saturday night runs quiet until 9 a.m. Sunday.
During nighttime hours, amplified music that is audible outside any structure at all is a violation. During daytime hours it becomes a violation once it is audible 200 feet from the source. A car or burglar alarm that does not shut off within 30 minutes is unlawful. Unmuffled engine brakes are banned outright. Penalties run $50, $100, $200, then $500 for a fourth and subsequent offenses, and a first violation gets a written notice with a correction deadline rather than a fine.
Scarborough is also the only town here that regulates light nuisance in the same document. Spillover onto residential property may not exceed one tenth of a foot-candle at the property line, and lighting violations carry $100 to $2,500 per day.
Falmouth: construction only, and the earliest evening cutoff
Falmouth's Ordinance 99-2021, attested May 24, 2021, added Section 12-4 to the Nuisances article. It regulates construction activities and nothing else. There is no general Falmouth noise ordinance for parties, music or dogs.
What it does regulate, it regulates hard. Nighttime hours are 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day, the earliest evening cutoff in the region by two to three hours. Sunday has "restricted hours" of 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., an unusual bracket structure that leaves the middle of Sunday open for ordinary projects. Major projects, defined as subdivisions of five or more lots or units and site plans over 20,000 square feet in the Residential Rural and Residential Growth districts, are barred from working on Sundays entirely, plus all federal holidays and all nighttime hours.
Freeport: the tightest weekday window, the smallest fine
Freeport's Chapter 39 covers loitering, curfew, noise and nuisance lighting together. Its daytime hours are the narrowest in Greater Portland: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, excluding New Year's Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. A weekday project that would be perfectly legal at 7 p.m. in Scarborough is outside daytime hours in Freeport.
The penalty does not match the strictness. A noise violation in Freeport is a civil penalty of not more than $100, flat, with no escalating ladder.
One caution about the source: the document the town links from its ordinance list opens as a file whose embedded title is "Memo to TC - Chapter 39.docx," and a separate 2019 version of the chapter also still sits on the town's site. Confirm the current text with the Codes Enforcement office before you rely on it in a dispute.
Westbrook, Windham, Cape Elizabeth and the rest
Westbrook files noise under Chapter 234, Peace and Good Order. Section 234-5 prohibits making "any loud or unusual noise" but, like Portland's, only "in any street or public place." The chapter's amendment history stops at 1997. There is no decibel standard and no quiet hours. Section 234-1A(3) reaches disturbance in or about a building or dwelling, and the city separately maintains disorderly house provisions.
Windham does not use a quiet-hours model either. Its Land Use Ordinance carries a performance standard of 60 dBA daytime and 50 dBA nighttime measured at or beyond any lot line, mirroring the state DEP numbers, which is a zoning compliance test rather than something a patrol officer measures at midnight.
Cape Elizabeth publishes 28 enumerated ordinance chapters on its Town Ordinances page, and there is no noise ordinance among them. The closest is Chapter 12, Miscellaneous Offenses, effective November 10, 2017. This is an absence proven off the town's own complete list, not an absence of search results.
South Portland has a Chapter 30 titled Noise, and it is a genuine noise control ordinance rather than a public-nuisance clause. Be aware that the town serves it as a PDF that did not render as readable text in three separate tools on July 28, 2026, so nothing in it is summarized here. Open it yourself or call Code Enforcement.
Gorham lists a Disorderly House Ordinance among its codes. Cumberland and Yarmouth surface no noise ordinance on their own sites, but neither publishes the kind of enumerated list that would let anyone call that a confirmed absence, so treat it as unverified rather than settled.
Verify the state before you trust any result
Six wrong places contaminate this exact search. Portland, Oregon has a well-known Title 18 noise code and at least one national directory serves it under a URL path reading "or/portland" while presenting it as Portland's rules. Falmouth, Massachusetts has its own proposed noise bylaw. Yarmouth, Massachusetts has Chapter 104. Westbrook, Connecticut is in Municode. Gorham, New Hampshire and Gorham, New York both publish noise ordinances. Every one of these outranks or sits beside the Maine town of the same name.
If you are new here and working through the rest of the municipal maze, the same town-by-town divergence shows up in short-term rental rules, in property taxes, and in trash and recycling. Choosing a town in Greater Portland is largely choosing which set of rules you want to live under, which is worth thinking about before you move here.
FAQ
What are the quiet hours in Portland, Maine?
There are none. Portland's general noise provision, Section 17-17(c) of the city code, applies only to noise made in, on or adjacent to streets, ways and public places, not to noise from private property. The only time-based residential limit is on construction: above 50 decibels is prohibited 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. within 500 feet of housing in R-zones from September 1 to May 31, extending to 8 p.m. from June 1 to August 31.
Which Greater Portland town has the strictest noise rules?
Scarborough, under Chapter 616, the Good Neighbor Ordinance adopted May 3, 2017. It is the only one with day-of-week specific quiet hours, an audibility standard for amplified sound, a 30-minute alarm limit, an escalating $50 to $500 penalty ladder, and light-spillover limits in the same document.
Does Maine have a statewide noise law?
Not one that governs neighbors. Maine DEP Chapter 375 Section 10 sets 60 dBA daytime and 50 dBA nighttime limits, but it applies to developments requiring Site Location of Development approval, and it explicitly defers to any municipal standard that is quantifiable within 5 dBA. The widely quoted "Maine 10 p.m. to 7 a.m." figure does not appear in it; the state rule's night period begins at 7 p.m.
Can I run a lawn mower on Sunday morning in Scarborough?
Not before 9 a.m. Domestic power equipment is exempt only during daytime hours, and Scarborough's Sunday daytime does not begin until 9 a.m. Saturday nighttime runs from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. Sunday.
What time must construction stop in Falmouth?
7 p.m. every day, under Ordinance 99-2021. Sunday adds restricted hours of 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and major projects, meaning subdivisions of five or more units or site plans over 20,000 square feet in the Residential Rural and Residential Growth districts, cannot work Sundays or federal holidays at all.
Which towns here have no noise ordinance?
Cape Elizabeth has none among the 28 chapters it enumerates on its own Town Ordinances page. Portland and Westbrook have noise provisions that reach only public places, which functionally leaves private residential noise unaddressed. Cumberland and Yarmouth show nothing on their own sites, though neither publishes a complete list, so that one stays unconfirmed.
How much is a noise fine in Greater Portland?
It depends more than you would expect. Freeport caps a noise violation at $100 with no escalation. Scarborough and Portland's right-of-way section both run $50, $100, $200, then $500. Portland's general disorderly conduct provision starts at a $100 minimum and reaches a $500 minimum for third and later offenses, plus the city's attorney fees and costs.