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How loud is loud?

Posted July 21, 2015 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler The Herald Tribune

After receiving a request to craft a loud noise ordinance, State's Attorney Jeremy Walker has been examining a variety of possibilities in preparation for a future hearing in Red Bud on the topic.

The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will have the final say on enacting any ordinance. The hearing, tentatively scheduled for sometime next month, will allow the public to weigh in on the matter.

"The first thing you have to look at is if you're going to take the time to do an ordinance, is it gonna be prosecutable?" Walker asked. "If you actually enact the ordinance, you want something that's going to hold up in court.

"The ultimate decision as to what we do is certainly going to be the County Board. They're the ones that enact the policies."

"My suggestion would be is that we have somewhat of a specific ordinance that's not tailored toward one activity or tailored toward one problem that we may or may not be having in the county," Walker said. "But something that is quantifiable. Something that has some sort of an objective standard."

Walker said an ordinance that "makes some sense" is one that specifies a certain number of feet from the property line and if a person can hear the noise inside their home with the doors and windows shut.

"If you can hear noise a certain number of feet from the property line inside your home with the doors shut and windows shut, then we have something," he said. "If you just have an ordinance that says you can't play loud music, who defines 'loud?'"

According to Walker, the county has never had a noise ordinance. At the city level, such things are typically lumped in with a nuisance ordinance.

"We have one, but rarely have we had to write up a violation on (noise)," said Chester Police Chief Ryan Coffey of his city's nuisance ordinance. "Our protocol is to give out warnings first and if they don't comply, to proceed to the next step with a violation."

Nuisance ordinances can be both difficult to enforce and unconstitutionally vague. Chester's ordinance defines a nuisance as "any thing, condition or activity which is offensive, obnoxious to the health and welfare or offend the senses of the residents of the city."

"That's where we try to balance enforcement with reasonableness," Coffey said. "Because that is very vague."

According to the ordinance, which does not specifically mention noise, any person found guilty of a nuisance violation will be fined $75 for each violation.

"It's usually dictated by the complainant," said Coffey, when asked how officers determine how loud is too loud. "To my knowledge, we have only employed a decibel reader once several years ago on a complaint against tractor-trailer trucks in a certain area."

Coffey said he thinks a county noise ordinance is a good idea.

"Without having that nuisance ordinance, there's little law enforcement can do to intervene to stop it," he said.

The City of Sparta includes noise as part of a "General Regulations" ordinance passed in 1982 that includes specific sound pressure decibel levels for both daytime (7 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and nighttime (10 p.m. to 7 a.m.) hours.

Decibel levels are defined as the following:

Residential - 55 (day), 50 (night)

Commercial - 60 (day), 55 (night)

Industrial - 80 (day), 75 (night)

"Sparta is a little closer to the Illinois EPA type of thing where they get into the decibel readers," Walker said. "The drawback to the decibel reader situation is you're talking about having to buy one of those, which we're going to have to look into seeing what one would cost and how many we would need to enforce it."

"Say a deputy gets a call and he's in Rockwood and there's a problem in Red Bud out in the county," Walker added. "If the deputy doesn't have (a decibel reader) in the squad car, then they're going to have to stop at the jail to pick one up or the sheriff's office and then go up there.

"Do we have to buy 12 of them to put in every squad car so we're able to enforce it? That, to me, is the drawback to having the specific decibel levels in that it may be cost-prohibitive."

Randolph County Sheriff Shannon Wolff was asked his opinion of the topic.

"If (the County Board) makes it a county ordinance, I don't think we would have any problems enforcing it," said Randolph County Sheriff Shannon Wolff. "We don't get many complaints."

Wolff said until the ordinance is written and passed, it would be tough to explain how the process would work.

"We would have to set a decibel level and use that as a guide," he said. "Once (the ordinance) was written, I would be able to say what the process is if you have a complaint."

In Red Bud - which is home to Red Bud Winery, a key part in the ordinance debate - the city passed an ordinance in May 2013 to amend the city's zoning code to allow a variance so that The Office could have music played outside, according to the North County News.

Music was not to exceed 85 decibels.

Walker said aside from concerns about the winery, he hasn't had many noise complaints and believes it isn't as bad of a problem county-wide.

"That will be up to the board to decide if it's worth investing money in that type of ordinance when I think, from a prosecution's standpoint, we can get a prosecutable case based upon if you can hear the noise inside your house and you're a certain amount of feet away from the property line, it's a violation."

Walker said the county's ordinance would not supercede what the cities have in place, but the cities can adopt the county's ordinance if they so choose.

"We only have the ability to create ordinances that would cover the unincorporated areas of the county," he said. "We cannot bind the City of Chester, they are their own sovereign entity, so to speak. We can't bind Red Bud, we can't bind Sparta."

Like the cities, Walker said the penalty for violating the county's ordinance would be a fine only.

"The county as a whole has a set range of what the penalty should be," he said. "I think it's as low as $25 up to $500 right now.

"If there is a violation, typically the first time you see somebody you're talking low-end. You're just hoping that if there is a problem and they are cited, that it would be remedied by the fact that they have to come to court, pay a little money, pay the court costs, pay the fine and be done with it."

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