Noise Ordinance Unconstitutional
Posted by Brent Finnegan on July 14th, 2009
A State Supreme Court ruling has rendered most noise ordinances in Virginia temporarily useless. On April 17, the Virginia Supreme Court threw out Virginia Beach’s noise ordinance on the grounds that it was “unconstitutionally vague.”
Justice Barbara Milano Keenan explained the ruling, stating, “Police officers likely will have differing perceptions regarding what levels of sound exceed the described tolerance levels and sensitivities of reasonable persons.”
Many municipalities in Virginia have similar ordinances. A first-time noise violation is a class 3 misdemeanor under Harrisonburg’s code:
No person shall, knowingly or unknowingly, expose another person to any irritating, distracting, physically or emotionally harmful, unreasonably loud, disturbing or unnecessary noise, over which the other person has no control. (16-10-6)
There’s nothing in Harrisonburg’s ordinance about decibel levels, which will likely be amended, because police officers will now need to measure the noise using decibel meters in order to issue citations. Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst says they are purchasing noise meters to adjust for the recent changes in the law.
HPD has had 127 noise violation calls for service since June 1 of this year, according to spokesperson Mary-Hope Gangwer. But she adds, “some calls for service could be the same person calling multiple times and duplication, where neighbors are hearing/calling about the same complaint.”
City Council member Richard Baugh wrote:
The ordinance still prohibits breaches of the peace (Section 16-8-12). This might not apply to the neighbor whose stereo is keeping you up. My guess though is that it would apply to major disturbances, including those generating a great deal of noise … Moreover, every jurisdiction in Virginia is going to be going through this at about the same time. So, a certain amount of communication and seeing what other places are doing seems in order.
The proposal on tonight’s City Council agenda aims to amend and re-enact section 15-3-2 of the city code, capping decibel levels at the property line to 65 decibels during the day, and 55 after 10 p.m.
Just for reference, a “normal conversation” is 60 decibels.
The amendment has all sorts of daytime exemptions built in: public/private school events, construction (of course), lawn mowers, church bells, political gatherings (protected under the First Amendment), special events that have been granted permits, etc.
I’m guessing that last one will be tricky. Someone wants to have a show, isn’t aware of the law, the cops ask “Where’s your permit?” and the promoter says “Huh?” In the late 90s, I organized a music festival in the county that got shut down because it didn’t have a permit. Devastating for a teen trying to promote some bands (two of them from California).
For shows and events in neighborhoods, simply meeting and giving your neighbors a heads-up can go a long way in cutting down on noise complaints.
Yes, 60 decibels is quite low. I’m not good at remembering numbers exactly, but I believe when I was doing a study of ambient sound on JMU’s campus (and whether the highway noise, etc. could cause hearing damage over the long term), the bridge over 81 had a pretty consistent 80-90 decibels – not with any horns or anything, just the standard sound of moving traffic.
Here’s a chart for sound comparisons:
http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html
“65 decibels during the day, and 55 after 10 p.m.” until what time in the morning? What if a neighbor is mowing their lawn at 6am on a Saturday morning? Why is blasting music at 3 in the afternoon illegal, but people that wake up the neighbors with a lawnmower at dawn are exempt? I guess they probably have to do some sort of ‘annoyance level’ vs. ‘necessity’ survey to determine which things to give exemptions to.
Yes, 6:00 a.m. is the official end of nighttime according to the amendment.
Brent,
Can you provide the text of the amendment?
Thanks,
Rich, you can find it from page 88 – 90 here.