by Alex Brooks
The Hoosick Town Board held a workshop meeting on Wednesday September 12 to discuss two draft laws they are developing, one a noise control ordinance and the other a revision to the Town’s sign law.
The Board discussed the noise ordinance first. Town attorney Jonathan Schopf has drawn up a draft law, which formed the basis of the discussion.
When a town tries to regulate noise, it comes almost immediately upon the difficulty of enforcing a noise ordinance. It is hard to define what noise is annoying and what noise is a necessary and accepted part of ordinary life. Some kinds of noise, such as a kennel where dogs are barking a lot, or a factory which makes a lot of noise in its production process, can be specifically described in the law and parameters set up. But to cover noise that is not mentioned in the law, the only way to set a consistent standard is to set a limit for how many decibels are allowed. Since the level of noise drops rapidly with distance, you then need to specify where the decibel level is to be measured. This is defined in the current draft as the volume of sound at the property line of the noisemaker.
The Board debated for some time the question of whether to set a limit of 50 decibels or 80 decibels as the acceptable limit. There were several people present at the workshop, and the Board allowed them to express opinions. One was an entrepreneur who is seeking to build a Wedding Barn business in Hoosick, and the others were some of his neighbors. He was concerned about how noise restrictions might limit his ability to run the business, and his neighbors were concerned about noise from wedding parties at his barn. The neighbors argued for a limit of 50 decibels, but the Wedding Barn man said he thought that “seems restrictive.”
Attorney Schopf looked at noise laws from a number of towns in the region in the course of preparing Hoosick’s law. He said he saw a lot of laws with a limit of 80 decibels, but he also saw some that set a limit of 50 decibels. One of the difficulties for the Board members was to get a feel for how loud these decibel levels are. Schopf said in an employment setting, a sustained level of 85 decibels means workers have to wear ear protection. An ordinary conversation can get above 50 decibels if someone is speaking loudly and they are close to you.
Schopf had downloaded onto his phone an app that measures decibel levels. During the meeting a freight train went by on tracks that are about a block from the meeting room in the Armory, and it was a little difficult to converse with someone twenty feet away over the noise of the train. Schopf reported that the train registered on his phone as 75 decibels.
There was some discussion of compromising at a noise limit somewhere between 50 and 80 decibels.
Supervisor Mark Surdam said, “We have to start somewhere,” meaning the Board should choose a number they think is right, and see how it works out in practice. He said the Board can revise the decibel limit later if they feel they have set it too high or too low.
The Board seemed to have a consensus that they would like to move forward with a noise ordinance, so the intent at the conclusion of the discussion was to have a draft ready in time for the October 10 Board meeting, so a public hearing on it can be held prior to the November meeting.
The Board was not so ready to move forward with revisions to the Town’s sign law. There is a sense on the Board that the current law is too restrictive, and it is not being enforced. Supervisor Surdam said it is his impression that “most businesses in town are not in compliance” with the current law.
He said the current law was created because Vermont outlawed billboard along highways, and Vermont businesses wanted to advertise in Hoosick to cars coming into the state. He said it was successful in keeping out the billboards, but it may have been too restrictive for local businesses in Hoosick that are trying to promote themselves. He said he wanted to “take an inventory” of the signs currently in place, and perhaps the Board can “craft a law that keeps most of the existing signage in compliance.”
Bill Hanselman said he thought the sign law should be simple, so everyone can understand right away what is allowed and what is not allowed.
The Board wanted to do more research and more thinking before drafting a new sign law, so there are no immediate plans to move forward with a sign law revision.