Council Approves First Law with Sound Limits in Town History
Trevor Phipps
Why should Colorado Springs have all the fun, with loud and colorful disputes, regarding noise fights.
Talk about some unusual timing. Just as city leaders down the hill were welcoming the new outdoor amphitheater in the Olympic City, which generated much community praise while sparking hundreds of noise complaints within a month period; the neighboring City Above the Clouds implemented their first-ever noise ordinance with decibel limits.
The WP Council Chambers was not invaded by angry residents, similar to what happened recently in Colorado Springs. But the question of new noise rules has escalated into a big deal, with the possibility (under one interpretation) that some loud folks could go to jail, and the updated law could lead to the creation of noise patrols locally.
In the past, the rules in Woodland Park surrounding noise were based on rural principles. According to city law, residents could pretty much be as loud as they wanted as long as they only made the noise during daytime hours when it was allowed, or it was not considered “annoying” by their neighbors or created a “disturbance.”
But those days are in the past, and the city has jumped into the 21stt Century with new city-oriented laws that negate how loud residents can get. This is a similar standard to what many other medium to large- sized cities have on their books. The new move, though, could impact local events or even traffic coming through town.
But when the new ordinance hit the council dais recently, there was little pushback. The city council mostly agreed with the staff that their sound ordinances needed to be more specific, similar to other municipalities.
According to Woodland Park City Attorney Betsy Stewart, the council directed staff to re-draft an ordinance after complaints about “Jake brakes” on semi-trucks coming through town were made. The city then noticed that their current noise rules haven’t been updated for more than 20 years.
“During the course of updating the code, we realized it hasn’t really been updated much since the 70s and then once in 2002,” Stewart said. “In particular, the existing ordinance lacked an objective way to enforce this. This new ordinance gives actual subjective measurements to do this.”
The new ordinance sets decibel limits on how loud noise can be during the daytime and night hours. The ordinance lays out exemptions to the noise ordinance, such as construction and lawn equipment, if they occur during daytime hours. The ordinance also excludes noise created from high school football games and marching bands.
The law also prohibits most of these allowed activities at night. In addition, it outlaws loud noises coming from homes, such as dogs barking for over 15 minutes, and sounds like sirens, whistles or really loud exhausts on non-emergency vehicles.
The updated anti-noise law comes with different decibel limits for each zone of the city including residential, commercial, industrial and public. The original ordinance set day -time limits in residential neighborhoods at 55 decibels and the night limit at 50. For commercial the limits are 65 dB during the day and 60 dB at night with industrial and public zones allowing noises up to 75 or 80 dB during the day and 70 or 75 at night.
The original ordinance changed the times during which louder noises were allowed from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
During recent council discussion and public comment on this issue, most residents and council members favored repealing and replacing the sound ordinance, but a few concerns were raised. For instance, Mayor Pro Tem Catherine Nakai didn’t like how the new ordinance set the day time hours an hour later to 10 p.m. (from what the earlier ordinance called for).
One resident thought that the night time limit for residential neighborhoods was too high at night at 50 dB. He noted that when he is camping, people can hear voices at that level. He recommended the level be dropped to 30 dB, but council met him in the middle.
Another resident, Eric Lockman, stated that they were concerned with the fact that a person convicted for violating the noise ordinance could get stuck with a hefty fine and spend up to a year in prison. He believes that a year behind bars was too stiff of a sentence for a noise ordinance violation.
However, Councilwoman Carrol Harvey explained that all of the city’s ordinances come with maximum sentences that often appear too high for the crime committed. But in a cautionary note, she explained that the maximum sentence is not dished out by the judge especially for minor crimes like noise violations.
In the end, the council approved the ordinance unanimously but they did make some amendments to the original new ordinance drafted by the city lawyers. The new ordinance will designate day time hours from 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. (instead of 10 p.m.) The council also decided to lower the allowed noise levels at night in residential zones from the original 50 dB to the much quieter 40 dB level.
Code enforcement will now be tasked with carrying a decibel meter around with them to monitor noise levels around the city.
The new ordinance did however come with a sound permit clause, creating a way where residents can apply for a permit if they know they will be doing an activity that could exceed the permitted noise levels.
Therefore, the new ordinance should not greatly affect local events. But, it could require that certain event promoters apply for a sound permit if they know the noise will be louder than the decibel limit allowed by law.
