EDITORIAL
Call for change is loud and clear for dud noise law
Times-Union editorial staff
Too loud or not?
If only the St. Johns County noise ordinance made it easier to say. But under the current ordinance, sheriff’s deputies who enforce the ordinance have to take their noise meters to make it official. And don’t forget the wind gauge.
And before they whip those out, they are supposed to be certified by Florida Department of Law Enforcement to use them.
Only a few are. And those certified must then use the equipment to catch the offending noise as it happens — provided it hasn’t already disappeared.
Confused yet?
“The current ordinance is not easy for just a deputy with no training or noise meter to make a decision,” said Col. Art May of the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. “We certainly want to make sure we do the right thing when we go out and we are sympathetic to the person complaining, but it’s just very hard for the deputy who goes out on the call.”
County commissioners Ben Rich and Cyndi Stevenson want to make it easier. Both spoke to the need for revising the ordinance at a recent county commission meeting and injecting more common sense.
“Unenforceable regulations are something we need to focus on,” said Rich, who recently got a 2 a.m. wake-up call from a disgruntled citizen complaining about excess noise near in her neighborhood. “We just don’t need anything on our books that we can’t do anything with.”
In many ways, the increasing noise level on this problem stems from a greater issue: growth. As the space between homeowners and businesses disappear, more and more complaints are surfacing.
*Trucks dumping dumpsters from the business next door.
*Late-night pressure washings outside restaurants.
*Swimming pool pumps with bad bearings next door.
*Construction work and garbage pickup.
Throw those in with the traditional loud party or barking dogs, and noise and frustration levels are bound to rise. Violators of the county’s noise ordinance face a minimum $50 fine.
Stevenson noted that technologies and laws across the nation are evolving on this issue. The current county noise ordinance dates back to 1998, and a review is overdue. The effort should be a good workout for the county commissioners, their attorney, the Sheriff’s Office and the public.
“How can we address citizen satisfaction most successfully?” asked Stevenson, who added that she wants to see something better and not just something new.
Current county regulations aren’t all bad. For instance, construction work is confined to certain times on weekdays, weekends and holidays within 50 yards of residential areas or other sensitive noise zones.
It isn’t hard to determine when a construction crew is building a road or a house hours before they should be or without a special permit. But officers should be not be hamstrung by noise meters. They must have the latitude to take action when noise is just a nuisance without computing decibel levels.
More clarity, simplicity and precision are needed on the broader scale, especially during those rare times when violators do not want to want to go along with the Sheriff’s Office’s request to tone down their noise.
County commissioners have a chance to make a lot of noise on this issue — in a positive way, of course.
