HomeMy WebLinkAbout1989-11-30-HEN-min.pdf SELECTMEN S ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON HEAVY EQUIPMENT NOISE
Minutes from November 30, 1989 Meeting
Town Office Building, Room 4-i -G- IS
The meeting was called to order at 8 12 p m Committee
members Joy Buchfi. rer, Betty Flynn, Jim McLaughlin and Chris
Kenney were present In addition, Chief John Bergeron of the
Le• ington Fire Department , Lt Chris Casey of the Le' ington
Police Department and Joe Marionp) the Le: ington Code enforcement
Officer attended the meeting The minutes from the November 9,
1989 meeting were unanimously approved
Jim began by reporting the results of his interview with the
Le' i.ngton Board of Health The board has received various
citizen complaints about early morning noise in town to g Rte
1^8 traffic, residential air conditioning units dogs barking)
Most of the complaints, however, have been unrelated to noise
from construction or heavy equipment When practicable, the
Board takes appropriate steps to eliminate the noise source,
to r_7 pr :,r; ng mnl ac barrierc along etc. 128) If a problem
persists, the Board asks D E Q E to contact the person with
control over the noise source, and unnecessary noise usually
stops
Jim said he believes that these types of complaints go
beyond the scope of our committee s charge Chris agreed,
stating that with the e• ception of dogs barking, these types of
noise probably cannot be classified as actionable nuisances He
e plained that the marginal noise level associated with a
properly operating air conditioner or automobile is a necessary
by- product of conventional and lawful activity Joy concurred,
pointing out that our committee is charged with investigating
"heavy equipment noise, " not "heavy equipment and noise "
[Previous minutes incorrectly listed the latter heading I
Nee t, Chris reported the findings of his interview with the
building commissioner His comments were supplemented by Joe
Marionp) who works in the commissioners office The building
commissioner has received occassional citizen complaints about
loud noise from construction prior to 7 oO a m These
complaints have customarily been referred to the police, and
have been satisifactorily resolved In recent weeks, however
there have been a number of complaints regarding loud,
early -morning noise emanating from the Turnberry Hill
development Joe reported that this development was subiect to
a special permit requiring that construction activity not begin
prior to 7 On a m As a result, the complaints of early-morning
noise were easily redressed there by a call to the developer
Joe reported that the planning board is now making it a custom
to include hours of operation in special permits He cautioned,
however that this approach is under inclusive because not every
development or construction proiect requires a special permit
B
Chief Bergeron stated that he also includes hours of
operation conditions when issuing blasting permits to
developers, but agreed that the permit process is under
inclusive For e• ample, he pointed out that the hours or
operation for such loud activities as drilling cannot currently
be regulated under the permit process because no permit is
required to drill The chief concluded by e: pressing support
for a bylaw regulating the hours of operation for heavy
equipment noise He bel. i.e""es that it would put contractors on
notice regarding hours of operation, and would also assist in
the enforcement of e' plicit permit provisions He recommended
that the penalty for violation should be the revocation of the
permit Betty and Joy agreed that revocation would induce
complaianre more than a mere fine system Under the current
fine s stem for violation of town bylaws, it would be more
profitable for developers to pay the nominal fines for
violations rather than comply with the bylaw
Lt Casey believes that the tools may already e. ist to
prevent early morning noise through a combination of the permit
process and state statutes proscribing disturbing the peace and
nuisances In regard to the proposed bylaw, Lt Casey suggested
that it be limited to regulating the hours of operation for
construction and heavy equipment operation He believes that
such a limited bylaw would be most palatable to Town Meeting
He recommended that citizen complaints from less intrusive noise
sources Ce g lawnmowers, minibikes) continue to be handled by
police under present disturbing the peace and nuisance laws
Chris then asked if we could e; pand regulation under the
permit process to include hours of operation in every building
permit which is issued Joe said he did not think we could
attach condittbns to the building permit because they are issued
under the State Building Code Instead, he recommended that we
craft a general town bylaw to the effect "that any construction
projects for which a permit of any kind is required are
restricted to operating between the hours of 7 00 a m and _ 00
p m Lt Casey predicted qualified police support for such a
bylaw stating that he would first need to know if we could
impose hours of operating conditions on permits under e: i.sting
law If we could not, as Joe predicted, Lt Casey would
recommend to Chief Furdon that he support the bylaw He
concluded by suggesting that e' ceptions be provided for special
circumstances, and reiterating that the penalty for a violation
should be revocation of the permit
wide' Committee members agreed to further discuss the merits of
wide' - _ - - _ ' " at the ne; t meeting The meeting was adjourned
at 10 22 p m The nest meeting is scheduled for December 7,
1989 at S 00 in the Town Office building room 111