Sunday, November 11, 2007
Silence isn't golden in Christiansburg
Christian Trejbal
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From the RoundTable blog
Christiansburg residents might want to invest in some earplugs. Town leaders have little interest in keeping things quiet.
The town council Tuesday unanimously decided Christiansburg does not need a noise ordinance. The current ill-defined, subjective injunctions are plenty, council members and planning commissioners figure.
Lawnmowers running at all hours, construction at the crack of dawn and blaring music are all legal, depending on who you ask.
Most localities in the region have detailed rules about when someone needs to turn down the volume. They restrict hours for loud noises and quantify what decibels are too loud or at what distances noise should be inaudible.
Not Christiansburg.
Town police registered 455 noise complaints over a year -- 55 of them on Republic Street. That's nothing like the Blacksburg party scene, but it's still enough headaches to warrant attention.
Last summer, town resident Terry Ellen Carter complained about rumbling bulldozers at a construction site near her home. A little peace and quiet in the morning was all she wanted.
Councilman Brad Stipes brought the issue to the attention of the full council. In July, the council unanimously directed the planning commission "to write a clear and enforceable ordinance governing noise within the town."
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Sometime between then and last Tuesday, the commission decided to ignore its instructions. It came up with an ordinance, an awful one, and told the council, which had not asked, that things are fine as they are.
On Tuesday, the council agreed.
Current law forbids anyone from making an "unreasonably loud and unnecessary noise." It's punishable as disorderly conduct.
And it's a horribly arbitrary standard. What's unreasonable? What's unnecessary?
"We're leaving it up to the discretion of our police department," Councilman Steve Huppert said Tuesday.
That's the sort of reasoning typically invoked to allow selective enforcement. Those troublesome kids having a party deserve a ticket. The town elders hosting a martini bash can carry on.
Citizens should be able to read a law and know what is legal in advance, not have to rely on the police to tell them while they issue a citation.
That's why other towns, cities and counties have reasonably precise definitions in their noise ordinances.
Besides, officers would have discretion even under a clear noise ordinance. Police choose whether to issue a citation or a warning all the time.
In Blacksburg, when officers respond to a noise complaint, they often warn polite partiers to keep it down. If the disturbance ends, everyone wins. If the cops have to return, then the citations fly.
This is not difficult. No noise before 8 a.m., later on the weekend. No noise after 10 p.m., later on Friday and Saturday. Don't create exceptions for special interests such as churches and businesses. Don't allow loud yard work during quiet hours.
Let short-term, temporary construction or repair work start a little earlier, but not much. Roofers need to get busting early, before the heat of the day, and they will move on in a few weeks or months.
Only the most radical mufflers want complete silence. Most people just don't want stereos and lawnmowers waking them at unreasonable hours. They want to be able to sip coffee and watch the sunrise without the repair shop down the street revving engines and clanging tools. They want to be able to enjoy a peaceful night without revelers next door screaming into the dark.
Town council members vainly rationalized that they were not giving construction firms and everyone else freedom to make as much noise as they like. Yet the law simply remains painfully vague, weak and ripe for abuse.
Councilman Ernie Wade offered the silliest justification. "We got along for 215 years without a noise ordinance," he said. "We can get along a few more."
That's right. It is all the town founders' fault for not realizing that some day there would be electronic amplifiers and heavy machinery to rattle eardrums. By that reasoning, Christiansburg should remain rooted in 18th century sensibilities. Oh, wait.
Carter spoke after the council voted. She expressed her disappointment. She pointed out the flaws in the process. She eloquently distilled what had happened.
"The planning commission was unable or unwilling to distinguish between the sounds of life and the noises that destroy the quality of life," she said.
The council could not either. Maybe they will mail earplugs to everyone.
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
