Public hearing on noise ordinance to resume

A public hearing on the matter will resume Tuesday

A public hearing resumes Tuesday on a proposed noise ordinance that was revised to address business owners’ concerns.

PORT EWEN, N.Y. » A public hearing will resume Tuesday, March 16, on a proposed noise ordinance that has been revised to include language addressing concerns from business owners that equipment needed for their operations could be considered loud or annoying.

The session is scheduled for 7 p.m. through video conferencing, with information about making comments available on the town website, esopus.com.

Consultant Matthew Rogers said businesses with permits should not have a problem if the machinery is being operated within guidelines of site plans.

“If they have existing approvals they need to be in compliance with those,” he said. “For example, outdoor venues, concerts ... as long as you are in compliance with (approvals), then you’re in compliance. If you’re out of compliance, the town would seek enforcement based on the actual approvals and not on a specified sound level.”

Rogers added that businesses would also be exempt from vibration provisions in the law if the equipment is being operated correctly.

“Whether it’s a restaurant, an outdoor venue, outdoor recreation, those are all going to have different levels of sound (at) different times of the day,” he said.

The law included prohibiting unreasonable noise based on the volume, frequency, whether it is unusual or incongruous with the surrounding environment, the proximity to other properties, the character of the zoning district and the duration. Unreasonable noise would be considered to be sound that would “annoy, disturb, injure or endanger the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of a reasonable person of normal sensibilities.”

Sound that exceeds 65 decibels would be prohibited from residential properties between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The regulations would also apply to control over domestic animals.

“No person who owns or has immediate control over an animal shall permit such animal to cause annoyance, alarm, or noise disturbance for more than 15 minutes at any time of the day or night by repeated barking, whining, screeching, howling, braying or other like sounds which can be heard beyond the boundary of such person’s property,” officials wrote.

The regulations would also prohibit the use of motor vehicles that are “so out of repair (or) so loaded” that it would “create loud, unnecessary grating, grinding, rattling or other noise.”