Noise ordinance changes are pending

The Culpeper Town Council Ordinance Committee recommended last week that the town repeal its existing noise ordinance because it is legally unenforceable in light of recent court decisions.

What will replace it, however, is unknown at this point.

“The ordinance can’t be enforced the way it is written,” Mayor Pranas Rimeikis said of town noise regulations that rely on “a reasonable person” finding a sound too noisy.

The town’s movement to repeal its ordinance is based on a Virginia Supreme Court ruling from April that found a similar ordinance in Virginia Beach was unconstitutionally vague. The matter goes to town council Tuesday at its regular meeting.

In September, Town Attorney Bob Bendall recommended that the town rescind its ordinance and replace it with one based on decibels, as other localities have done.

At the time, the recommendation was for town police to purchase four noise meters at $1,019 each to enforce the new ordinance. However, several members of council were not comfortable enacting decibel-based noise rules or buying the noise meters.

Councilman Bobby Ryan called it a waste of money while Councilman Chip Coleman said he’d rather not vote for it.

After first and second readings of the ordinance change were held late last year, the issue was delayed pending final action from the U.S. Supreme Court, to which Virginia Beach appealed the lower court’s decision.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state court’s decision, denying a review of it as requested by the city.
Now the issue is back before town council.

Rimeikis said last week the recommendation going to council Tuesday is only to repeal the old ordinance and not to enact a new one just yet.
Bendall’s proposed ordinance, as submitted in September, based noise volume on recognized national standards used in environmental noise measurement.

“A noise source is generally considered to be intrusive if noise from the source, when measured over a 15-minute period, exceeds the background noise by more than five (decibels),” Bendall wrote in a report.

His draft ordinance proposed different decibel limits for different parts of town, all based on noises exceeding the “local ambient,” that is, the lowest background
sound as measured by a noise meter.

In residential areas, noises exceeding that baseline by six decibels would be in violation. The specified level above the baseline in commercial/industrial areas would be eight decibels.
The proposal also addressed noise limits on public property regarding machinery (15 decibels above back-ground noise) and concerts (80 decibels).

In addition, the replacement ordinance, though not yet adopted, made special provisions and exemptions for daytime noise, “safety devices,” emergencies, construction and utility or road construction.
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Want to hear more about it? A recommendation from the town’s ordinance committee to repeal the noise ordinance goes before Culpeper Town Council at its regular meeting Tuesday night at 7 in the county boardroom.

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