Chapter 8.16
NOISE REGULATIONS
Sections:
8.16.060 Chapter additional to other law.
8.16.070 Administration and enforcement.
8.16.010 Definitions.
The following terms and definitions shall apply herein unless the context requires otherwise:
(1) “Director” means police chief of the city of St. Helens.
(2) “Idling speed” means that speed at which an engine will run when no pressure is applied to the accelerator or accelerator linkage.
(3) “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.
(4) “Person” includes, in addition to any individual, any public or private corporation, association, partnership, or other legally recognized public or private entity.
(5) “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, or comprehensible musical rhythms.
(6) “Sound-producing device” includes:
(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;
(i) Construction, demolition, exterior alteration or repair of a building or structure, as well as excavation, and land development site preparation activities performed with heavy construction equipment, when such activities are performed by a commercial operator or contractor, but only between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. of the following day (Monday through Saturday) and between 8:00 p.m. Saturday through 7:00 a.m. Monday;
(7) “Vehicle” includes automobiles, motorcycles, motorbikes, trucks, buses, snowmobiles, and boats;
(8) “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). (Ord. 2861 § 1, 2002; Ord. 2405 § 1, 1982)
8.16.020 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 Standard 1.4-1971. For purposes of this chapter, a sound level meter shall contain at least an A-weighted scale, and both fast and slow meter response capability.
(2) If measurements are made, personnel making those measurements shall have completed training in the use of the sound level meter, and measurement procedures consistent with that training shall be followed.
(3) 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.
(4) All measurements made pursuant to this chapter shall comply with the provisions of this section. (Ord. 2405 § 2, 1982)
8.16.030 Prohibitions.
It shall be unlawful for any person to produce or permit to be produced, with a sound-producing device, sound which:
(1) 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, or within a noise sensitive unit which is not the source of the sound, exceeds:
(a) Fifty dBA at any time between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. of the following day;
(b) Sixty dBA at any time between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. the same day;
(c) Fifty dBA at any time between 8:00 p.m. Saturday and 7:00 a.m. Monday; or
(2) Is plainly audible at any time between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. the following day or at any time between 8:00 p.m. Saturday and 7:00 a.m. Monday:
(a) Within a noise sensitive unit which is not the source of the sound; or
(b) On a public right-of-way at a distance of 50 feet or more from the source of the sound.
(3) If a measurement of the sound is made, subsection (1) of this section shall supersede subsection (2) of this section and shall be used to determine if a violation of this chapter exists. (Ord. 2861 § 2, 2002; Ord. 2405 § 3, 1982)
8.16.040 Exceptions.
Notwithstanding SHMC 8.16.030, 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, including stadiums, parks, schools, churches, athletic fields, racetracks, airports and waterways; provided however, that said exception shall not impair the director’s power to declare such event 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 federal law, including, but not limited to, sounds caused by railroad, aircraft or commercially licensed watercraft operations.
(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 10:00 p.m., excluding weekends, unless such permit expressly authorizes otherwise. (Ord. 2405 § 4, 1982)
8.16.050 Variances.
Any person who is planning the use of a sound-producing device, which may violate any provision of this chapter, may apply to the director for a variance from such provision.
(1) Application. The application shall state the provision from which a variance is being sought, the period of time the variance is to apply, the reason for which the variance is sought, the amplification permit fee, as set by resolution, and any other supporting information, which the director may reasonably require.
(2) Review Considerations. The director shall consider:
(a) The nature and duration of the sound emitted.
(b) Whether the public health, safety or welfare is endangered.
(c) Whether compliance with the provision would produce no benefit to the public.
(d) Whether previous permits have been issued and the applicant’s record of compliance.
(3) Time Duration of Variance. A variance may be granted for a specific time interval only.
(4) The director shall, within 10 days, deny the application, approve it, or approve it subject to conditions.
(5) The director’s decision may be appealed to the city council. Notice of appeal should be delivered to the city administrator with the appeals fee as set in the miscellaneous fee schedule. The council shall review the application de novo, at the next regularly scheduled meeting, deny the application, approve it, or approve it subject to conditions.
(6) The director may at any time before or during the operation of a variance granted by the director 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. 3074 § 1, 2008; Ord. 2405 § 5, 1982)
8.16.060 Chapter additional to other law.
The provisions of this chapter shall be cumulative and nonexclusive and shall not affect any other claim, cause of action or remedy; nor, unless specifically provided, shall it be deemed to repeal, amend or modify any law, ordinance or regulation relating to noise or sound, but shall be deemed additional to existing legislation and common law on such subject. (Ord. 2405 § 6, 1982)
8.16.070 Administration and enforcement.
(1) The director shall administer, supervise and perform all acts necessary to enforce this chapter.
(2) Persons appointed or assigned by the director, as he deems necessary to accomplish effective enforcement of this chapter, may be peace officers or not.
(3) Upon citation of 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.
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 SHMC 8.16.080(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.
(4) Citation forms authorized for use for violations of city ordinances may be used for any violations of SHMC 8.16.030.
(5) In addition to any other enforcement procedures, the city council may, upon its own motion, or upon receipt of a petition requesting hearing by the council signed by no fewer than 10 persons residing in the vicinity of a property upon which is located an alleged violation of this chapter, issue its order to the person producing or permitting to be produced the sound which allegedly violates this chapter, to appear before the council and show cause why the council should not declare the sound a violation of this chapter and order the violation abated. Noncompliance with the order may result in the council referring the order to the city attorney for injunctive enforcement, or alternatively to the district attorney for appropriate action. (Ord. 2861 § 3, 2002; Ord. 2405 § 7, 1982)
8.16.080 Penalties.
(1) Violation of any provision of SHMC 8.16.030 shall constitute a class C misdemeanor offense.
(2) In addition to the penalties 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. (Ord. 2861 § 4, 2002; Ord. 2405 § 8, 1982)
8.16.090 Separate violations.
Each day’s violation of a provision of this chapter constitutes a separate offense. (Ord. 2405 § 9, 1982)