McCORDSVILLE — McCordsville Town Council discussed an amended noise ordinance on first reading at the Tuesday evening meeting.
After a noise complaint received at the January town meeting, the town council recommended the formation of a committee to review and recommend changes to the special events permit and the current noise ordinance as needed.
The committee has been meeting weekly for the past two months and consists of John Price, town councilor and lead; Paul Casey, Police Chief; Erik Pullman, Building Commissioner; Tim Gropp, Town Manager; Blair Borrmann, resident; and Beth Copeland, Legal Counsel. The committee also used resources from a fire inspector and sound expert as needed.
Price said that sound can be affected by many environmental variables such as temperature, wind direction, humidity and terrain. It can also depend on the kind of frequency being dealt with, like high and low frequencies. When measuring sound, decibels (dB) are used and have different filters that are applied, such as dB(A) and dB(C) — weighted scale for more bass sounds.
Price said the committee had a number of recommendations for the ordinance, the first being to include dB(C) in addition to dB(A) for a measurement of criteria.
The second recommendation would be to change the current six different levels listed in the noise ordinance from day and night for residential, commercial and industrial to just day and night levels — eliminating the zoning distinctions.
The timing would carry over directly, having day be listed from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and night listed from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Daytime would have a dB(A) limit of 64 while nighttime would be 50 dB(A). The numbers for dB(C) have yet to be determined.
They would also look at changing the measurement of the sounds to from the property line of which the generator of the sound is coming from.
Looking at construction noise, they would leave the levels in the ordinance as is but address the hours somewhere else.
“In the old ordinance … we had a huge construction paragraph and that got really convoluted really quick, and so we were like, ‘Why are we addressing hours of construction in a noise ordinance? It doesn’t make sense.’ So, again, we tried to simple this ordinance down to only addressing noise issues,” Gropp said.
The last recommendation is where the measurement procedure belongs. In the current ordinance, it instructs the police officer how to make measurements, whereas the change would also include referring to user manuals of the measurement devices and whatever parameters that need to be measured, but not listing a step-by-step on how to do so.
“That would be available, but not within the noise ordinance itself because it just complicates things,” Price said.
Scott Jones, town council vice president, asked Price what would be a comparable sound that would equate to the dB measurement of 64, in which Price responded with “a loud conversation like we’re having right now.”
There are some exceptions listed in the ordinance, which include sounds of sirens from authorized vehicles, outdoor lawn maintenance equipment between the hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., dates and times for when fireworks are permitted and a few additional exceptions.
Jones said that he has concerns about the level limit, stating that 64 dB seems to be low compared to surrounding communities, and he struggles with allowing the same dB level for residential and commercial property.
With the location of measurement, Dr. Bryan Burney, town council member, raised the question on which property line would be used if a property owner has a large amount of land and has it in two separate parcels – the property line closest to the generator of sound or the property line closest to the one who filed a complaint.
Price said they haven’t addressed a situation about multiple parcels, but that they would look to measure the sound from the property line closest to the generator.
Dr. Burney said he only has the perspective of complaints over the years about the noise from Daniel’s Vineyard and has not had people come to him with other complaints such as lawn mowing.
Gropp said that when looking at the numbers, they have had more calls on neighbor versus neighbor, construction, lawn mowing, etc. than the specific instance that Dr. Burney talked about, and that this ordinance would be addressing the entire town limits.
Price said they had also looked at a variety of businesses such as soccer fields, Scarlet Lane Brewery, Daniel’s Vineyard and more, trying to get different perspectives into consideration when drafting the ordinance.
Price said the committee for the noise ordinance met for just over 10 hours and, in the beginning, while they had different perspectives, they were able to align themselves with a general direction.
“People may not agree with everything exactly, but I think we’ve come to terms and that is why we actually brought this and moved this forward,” Price said.
Gropp said that committee will tweak some of easier recommendations from the town council, but they will need to hold a work session to work out the bigger differences as it is ultimately the town council’s decision.
“Certain Ordinances are simply very complicated, and this is a prime example. Trying to meet the needs of 11,000+ residents and balances different viewpoints and tolerances while still hoping to create a vibrant, fun community demands discussion and scrutiny,” Gropp said. “We will continue to work towards a balance and fair proposal.”
