Chapter 8.25
NOISE
Sections:
8.25.070 Administration and enforcement.
8.25.000 Applicability.
This chapter shall apply to all residential and commercial property within the city of Pilot Rock. [Added during 2011 codification].
8.25.010 Policy.
Certain activities essential to the economic, social, political, educational, and technical advancement of the citizens of the city necessarily require the production of sounds that may offend, disrupt, intrude, or otherwise create hardship among the citizenry. The time or manner of sound may constitute a hazard to the health, safety, welfare, and quality of life of residents of the city.
It is the policy of the city to limit and regulate sound deemed to be harmful to the health, safety, welfare, and quality of life of the citizens of the city, and this code shall be liberally construed to effectuate that purpose. However it is not the intent of this chapter to restrict reasonable levels of noise that results from routine industry, commerce or activity of the community. It is the intent of this chapter to: (1) provide an objective standard, while allowing for extenuating circumstances, for determining when noise or sounds are beyond what would be considered normal and reasonable and (2) to establish procedures for dealing with such situations. [Ord. 531 § A-1, 2008].
8.25.020 Definitions.
As used in this chapter, the following shall mean:
“Animal” means any live vertebrate creature, domestic or wild, except fish.
“A-scale (dBA)” means the sound level in decibels measured using the A-weighted network as specified in American National Standard Specification for Sound Level Meters (ANSI S1.4-1971).
“C-scale (dBC)” means the sound level in decibels measured using the C-weighted network as specified in American Standard Specification for Sound Level Meters (ANSI S1.4-1971).
“Idling speed” means that speed at which an engine will run when no pressure is applied to the accelerator or accelerator linkage.
“Noise sensitive unit” means any building or portion thereof, vehicle, boat or other structure used as a church, day care center, hospital, school or adapted or used for the overnight accommodation of persons, including, but not limited to, individual residential units, individual apartments, trailers, and nursing homes.
“Person” includes, in addition to any individual, any public or private corporation, association, partnership, or other legally recognized public or private entity.
“Plainly audible sound” means any sound for which the information content of that sound is unambiguously communicated to the listener, such as, but not limited to, understandable spoken speech, comprehension of whether a voice is raised or normal, animal sounds or comprehensible musical rhythms.
“Sound-producing device” means anything that is capable of making sounds that can be measured by a sound level meter as provided for in PRMC 8.25.030(1). A sound-producing source includes, but is not limited to, the following:
(a) Loudspeakers, public address systems;
(b) Radios, tape recorders and/or tape players, phonographs, television sets, stereo systems, including those installed in a vehicle;
(c) Musical instruments, amplified or unamplified;
(d) Sirens, bells;
(e) Vehicle engines or exhausts, when the vehicle is not on a public right-of-way, particularly when the engine is operated above idling speed;
(f) Vehicle tires, when caused to squeal by excessive speed or acceleration;
(g) Domestic tools, including electric drills, chain saws, lawn mowers, electric saws, hammers, and similar tools, but only between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. of the following day;
(h) Heat pumps, air-conditioning units, and refrigeration units, including those mounted on vehicles.
“Vehicle” includes automobiles, motorcycles, motorbikes, trucks, buses, snowmobiles, and boats. [Ord. 531 § A-2, 2008].
8.25.030 Sound measurement.
(1) If measurements are made, they shall be made with a sound level meter. The sound level meter shall be an instrument in good operating condition, meeting the requirements of a Type I or Type II meter, as specified in ANSI S1.4-1971. For purposes of this chapter, a sound level meter shall contain at least an A-weighted scale and a C-weighted scale, and both fast and slow meter response capability.
(2) Measurements may be made at or within the boundary of the property on which a noise sensitive unit, which is not the source of the sound, is located, or within a noise sensitive unit, which is not the source of the sound.
(3) All measurements made pursuant to this chapter shall comply with the provisions of this section. [Ord. 531 § A-3, 2008].
8.25.040 Prohibitions.
(1) It shall be unlawful for any person to produce or permit to be produced, with a sound-producing device, sound which:
(a) When measured at or within the boundary of the property on which a noise sensitive unit, which is not the source of the sound, is located and the sound exceeds:
(i) Fifty dBA at any time between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. of the following day; or
(ii) Sixty dBA at any time between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. the same day.
(b) Is plainly audible at any time between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. the following day:
(i) Within a noise sensitive unit which is not the source of the sound; or
(ii) On a public right-of-way at a distance of 100 feet or more from the source of the sound.
(c) If a measurement of the sound is made, subsection (1)(a) of this section shall supersede subsection (1)(b) of this section and shall be used to determine if a violation exists.
(2) It shall also be unlawful for the keeping of any animal which by frequent or loud continued noise for 30 minutes or more shall disturb the comfort and repose of any person in the vicinity. [Amended during 2011 codification; Ord. 531 § A-4, 2008].
8.25.050 Exceptions.
Notwithstanding PRMC 8.25.040, the following exceptions from this chapter are permitted when conditions therefor are met:
(1) Sounds caused by organized athletic or other group activities, when such activities are conducted out of doors on property generally used for such purposes, e.g., fields; provided, however, that said exception shall not impair the chief of police’s power to declare such events or activities otherwise to violate other laws, ordinances or regulations.
(2) Sound caused by emergency work, or by the ordinary and accepted use of emergency equipment, vehicles and apparatus, whether or not such work is performed by a public or private agency, upon public or private property.
(3) Sounds caused by sources regulated as to sound production by state or federal law (industrially produced sounds), including, but not limited to, sounds caused by railroad, aircraft, commercially licensed watercraft operations or truck mounted refrigeration units when the truck is parked in an industrial manufacturing zone.
(4) Sound caused by bona fide use of emergency warning devices and alarm systems.
(5) Sound caused by blasting activities when performed under a permit issued by appropriate governmental authorities and only between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., excluding weekends, unless such permit expressly authorizes otherwise. [Ord. 531 § A-5, 2008].
8.25.060 Variances.
Any person who is planning the use of a sound-producing device, which may violate any provisions of this chapter, may apply to the chief of police for a variance from such provision.
(1) The variance application shall state the provisions from which a variance is being sought, the period of time the variance is to apply, the reason for which the variance is sought and any other supporting information which the chief of police may reasonably require.
(2) The chief of police shall consider:
(a) The nature and duration of the sound emitted; and
(b) Whether the public health, safety or welfare is endangered; and
(c) Whether compliance with the provisions would produce no benefit to the public; and
(d) Whether previous permits have been issued and the applicant’s record of compliance.
(3) A variance may be granted for a specific time and/or interval.
(4) Variances granted under this chapter shall not exceed 95 dBA 100 feet in front of the sound-producing device or 65 dBC at the property line of the event taking place. Depending on factors such as terrain and location of the event, these decibel limitations may be lowered at the discretion of the chief of police.
(5) The chief of police shall, within 10 days, deny the application, approve it, or approve it subject to conditions.
(6) The chief of police’s decision may be appealed to the city council. Notice of appeal shall be delivered to the mayor, via City Hall. The council shall review the application at the next regularly scheduled meeting, deny the application, approve it, or approve it subject to conditions.
(7) The chief of police may, at any time before or during the operation of a variance granted by the chief of police, revoke the variance for good cause. The council may, at any time before or during the operation of any variance, revoke the variance for good cause. [Ord. 531 § A-6, 2008].
8.25.070 Administration and enforcement.
(1) The chief of police shall administer, supervise and perform all acts necessary to enforce this chapter.
(2) Persons appointed or assigned by the chief of police, as he deems necessary to accomplish effective enforcement of this chapter, may only be peace officers.
(3) Upon citation to a person for a violation of this chapter, the person issuing the citation may seize the sound-producing device, which was the source of the sound, as evidence only if the violation is determined by use of a sound level meter.
(4) The sound-producing device, if seized, shall be impounded subject to disposition of the issued citation and determination by the court whether the sound-producing device shall be returned to the cited person or deemed contraband, subject to PRMC 8.25.080(2). It is the intent of this chapter to avoid such seizures except where the person being cited has received two previous citations within the previous six months for the use of the same or similar sound-producing device. The previous citations may, but need not, occur on the same date as the citation which prompts the seizure. [Ord. 531 § A-7, 2008].
8.25.080 Penalties.
(1) Violation of any section of this chapter is punishable by a penalty not to exceed $500.00.
(2) In addition to the penalty prescribed herein, the court may order any sound-producing device found to have been used to violate this chapter seized, confiscated, and destroyed as contraband, or sold with the proceeds of sale to be deposited in the city general fund. [Amended during 2011 codification; Ord. 531 § A-8, 2008].
8.25.090 Separate violations.
Each day’s violation of a provision of this chapter constitutes a separate offense. [Ord. 531 § A-9, 2008].