Disagreement reaches city as officials work to craft an
ordinance
Gilroy – A wooden fence, three stacks of cinder blocks, four feet of open space, and stucco and sheet rock separate the Comito family’s bedrooms from their neighbor’s pool and spa equipment. Still, the drone of pumps and heaters penetrates the walls of their Hacienda Drive home on most days, and they say it’s driving them nuts. An adoptive son moved out because of the noise, and now Virginia and Joe Comito plan to sell the home where they’ve lived for three years.
“People are becoming more crude, less mannered,” said Virginia Comito, who is pushing city leaders to enact a tough noise control ordinance. “They don’t seem to care about their neighbors. Then of course things have to be legislated.”
On the other side of the fence, DeeAnn and Michael Harn say they have done everything in their power to accommodate their neighbors. They’ve re-calibrated their pumps, put a cover on top of the equipment, planted small palm trees to reduce noise. They asked the city for permission to enclose the equipment, but the very officials who approved the project four years ago rejected the idea of an enclosure as a fire safety threat.
“What is a resident to do if you have a person that is hyper-sensitive?” DeeAnn Harn asked. “The equipment was allowed to be installed. When the city has already approved something that is energy efficient, how can they turn around after the fact and come after us? It makes you feel like you’re the bad guy.”
The not-so-neighborly squabble, once limited to occasional confrontations between the residents and frequent calls to city staff and police, has boiled over into the public eye as officials parse the details of a proposed noise control ordinance.
Both couples watched from the otherwise empty seats in council chambers Monday night, as officials debated the issue of “fixed” sources of pollution – air conditioning and heating systems, pools, and spas.
Thousands of homeowners could suddenly find themselves in danger of $100 fines if city leaders set a noise threshold too high. If thresholds are too low, countless residents could continue suffering silently as noise spills over from neighbors’ yards and garages.
The central question facing council – and the one that may have no firm answer – is how loud is too loud?
Dion Bracco is the only councilman who took up the Comitos’ offer to visit their home and listen to the pool pumps and Jacuzzi heater. The Harns turned all the equipment on at one time, though they say that is not the normal way the equipment functions.
“She’s got cinder blocks up against the fence and I heard it. The noise is there,” Bracco said. “I think that we’re getting something crafted that will work in most cases. I have concerns over the day times, if someone can make as much noise as they want without regard for their neighbors.”
On Monday night, Bracco and other councilmen agreed to postpone setting the maximum threshold for acceptable noises from pools and spas at 75 decibels, as measured from the property line. City staff members compared the noise level to the sound of a blow dryer, the din of a restaurant, or freeway traffic. They plan to demonstrate a range of noises and their corresponding decibel levels during informal policy discussions later this month.
Seventy-five decibels is far too high a threshold for Virginia Comito, a night nurse who said she quit her job because she couldn’t sleep during the daytime.
The Harns’ equipment was measured at 71 decibels at her property line when all the pool equipment was running, according to City Planning Manager Bill Faus.
“I think they have an elevated level of sensitivity to noise, but when you talk about the tolerance levels that different individuals have, it’s a scale,” he acknowledged. “I would definitely characterize Virginia as being very sensitive to ambient noise levels. What would be characterized as a common, neighborhood noise, she finds objectionable.”
While an appropriate threshold for enforcement of excessive noise remains unresolved, council agreed Monday to mandate energy-efficient equipment that produces less noise for future housing projects and homeowners looking to upgrade systems. They also agreed that use of leaf blowers, lawn mowers, air hammers and other “non-fixed” sources of noise pollution should only be allowed between 7am and 10pm any day of the week.
Officials chose to scrap the broader effort to also regulate noise from businesses.
Later this month, council will consider whether to apply the noise thresholds to all homes with pools and other equipment, or only new installations. If existing systems are “grandfathered in,” the ordinance would have no bearing in the dispute between the Comitos and Harns.
“The big thing here is that we have to be careful not to craft an ordinance to fix the problem on Hacienda Drive,” Bracco said. “We’re making an ordinance for the whole city.
