Officials to consider limiting noise levels based on the louder
the noise, shorter the time
By Betsy Avelar Staff Writer
Gilroy – The Gilroy City Council could deliver a message – loud and clear – to noise polluting industries early in 2007.
A draft noise ordinance, expected to undergo a final council vote early next year, sets limits for average noise levels over periods of one, five and 15 minutes, and allowable levels during the day and night. The noise maximums follow a simple logic: The louder the noise, the shorter the time a business can produce it.
The noise ordinance was expected to be voted on in late November, but City Councilman Craig Gartman said more discussion was needed.
“I think we need to make sure that we properly identify where the true issues are. I’m not in favor of the council making policy decisions because of a dispute between neighbors. But if this is a widespread problem that’s where we need to identify how were going to attack it,” said Gartman, who has not seen a final copy of the noise ordinance.
Gartman has heard about noise from a cardboard plant in Gilroy, and idling trains at the Caltrain station, “but those are the only two issues that we’re trying to address,” he said.
Current regulations are virtually unenforceable, city staff say, because they link violations to 24-hour averages.
“We didn’t have the tools to enforce,” said Gilroy Code Enforcement Officer Scott Barron, explaining that the city in most cases is forced into the role of mediator. “We usually try to get them to get along, but (the regulation) is nothing that has any teeth in it.”
Only a handful of complaints about businesses roll in each year, Barron said. Most come from neighbors of the industrial corridor along Alexander Street and the First Street shopping corridor. In one case, an auto-body shop sent neighboring businesses into an uproar when it decided to test dune buggies. In another case, a First Street restaurant’s refrigeration system was driving nearby homeowners crazy.
Robert Spangler and his family said the city did nothing last year when he complained about noise coming from Bay Sheet Box Co. at the southern tip of Alexander Street. Windy days are the worst, Spangler said, explaining how noise reaches his Garden Court home after passing across railroad tracks, Monterey Street and an open field just south of Platinum Theaters.
‘It would be like if you’re next to an airport,” Spangler said. “It’s like listening to an F-16 on the tarmac revving its engines up. I can’t believe there are not more complaints from more residents.”
Bay Sheets Manager Craig Fisher declined to comment, saying he did not know enough about the noise complaints or the city’s draft regulations.
For his part, Spangler had given up hope that his family’s concerns would be addressed until he learned the city council was drafting a noise ordinance.
In recent months, the governing body has devoted considerable energy to hashing out an ordinance to regulate noise in residential neighborhoods. During a full day of informal policy talks Friday, council members agreed to set time limits on use of leaf blowers and other “non-fixed” sources of pollution. They also set a 70-decibel threshold for fixed sources of noise pollution such as air conditioners and pool pumps, but chose to apply the regulation only to new homes and people looking to upgrade their systems. The 70-decibel noise level, as measured from the property line, equates roughly to the din of a loud restaurant or highway traffic.
Commercial and industrial noise pollution had fallen off the council’s radar as it tackled residential noise. Mayor Al Pinheiro was surprised to learn that city staff members plan to include tougher regulation of commercial and industrial noise polluters as part of the ordinance governing homes. He said it’s too early to say how he would vote on tougher standards for businesses.
“I’m hoping that businesses that put out such noises are in an industrial area that tolerates more noise than in a residential area,” Pinheiro said. “The fine line is where they kind of meet each other. I guess I’d have to see what they bring to us. I really never focused in on that. We got so tangled up on this whole residential ordinance there wasn’t much attention paid to anything else.”
Betsy Avelar attends Gavilan College and is an intern for The South Valley Newspapers. Reach her at 847-7216 or [email protected].
Serdar Tumgoren contributed to this story.
