HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-10-07-NAC-min.pdfNoise Advisory Committee Meeting: Oct 7, 2025 Meeting
The meeting of the Noise Advisory Committee (“NAC”) was held remotely
on Zoom on Tuesday, October 7, 2025 and called to order by Barbara Katzenberg at 7:02 PM.
NAC Members Present: Barbara Katzenberg (Chair) (BK), Benjamin Lees (BL), Laura Rosen
(LR), Elaine Rudell (ER), Joseph Lehar (JL), Joe Pato (Select Board Liaison)
Guests: Jim Kelly (JK, Building Commissioner), and Tom Cataldo (TK, Builder representative).
Administration
1. JL was assigned as Clerk for this meeting
Committee Business
Actions for next time
* Bring Tom and Jim back next year
* Set topic for next meeting: Landscaping work
* NAC members return with their experiences
- what is the fall cleanup season like?
- Has enforcement worked?
- Are police enforcing?
(1) Announcements (BK)
* Landscape noise Code enforcement officer status
* Current appointee can't do it*
* Only 3 applicants for the job, hard to find new ones
(2) Presentation on Noise Bylaws for ledge excavation (JK+TC)
Topic: How are the Noise Bylaw provisions associated with ledge excavation working?
(Expected to attend: Building Commissioner Jim Kelly, and representatives from companies)
doing development in Lexington)
* Jim Kelly and Todd Cataldo present
* noise bylaw is great for the building dept now
- requiring mitigation with noise consultant, having names, examples is smoother
- having noise consultant present helps
- getting plans developed helps too
* Sheridan street noise mitigation- 7 day period of monitoring unpleasant but done
- bylaw doesn't give it by right, so they have to justify
- was at 85 dBA for the 7 days, so that's a lot
- 2 other sites: Great Rock
* Getting better from admin and contracting side
* Blasting vs hammering
- the drilling is much louder than 85dbA, but shorter time period
- blasting is very limited time and not as noisy
- hammering is so much worse
- should consider having by-laws encouraging blast vs hammer
- have a different dBA cutoff for blasts
- fire dept involved in blast restrictions for safety so controlled
- drill dBA level is 110 at the drill
* Lexington has more restrictive blast regulations
- because of foundation cracking event
* Current law
- Jim Kelley feels quite good about how it is working
- more control, more monitoring, 85 is loud but safe
- like idea of discussing blast alternative
- another season of data collecting would help
- Todd agrees
* Maybe wait a year and have Todd&Jim return to give us data
* Do consider 8 am saturday starts
- currently saturday starts only 9 am, which is problematic for any work then
- drilling, blasting or hammering already not allowed on Saturday
(3) Outcome of NAC requests to Planning Department/Planning Board on 952 Waltham
Street multifamily housing project
* Sent letter which was incorporated into planning dept's instructions for the job
* site is to build town houses into hillside (south of Concord Ave)
* planning board involved when multifamily
* Planning to hammer out the ledge, very close to property line
* Didn't think they could blast due to proximity to neighbors
- 18' cut needed, which is lots to take out with hammer
* Board can't reject if meeting laws, but can make recommended conditions
- geotech plan + mitigation plan
* Enumerating request for blast helped
- committee didn't require blasting though
* Why don't contractors go for blasting? Cost?
- most don't realize that cost is often not more
- some concern about risks that are largely not real
* Any incentives that the town could offer to help move contractors towards blasting?
- Todd: unclear how to incentivize
- Jim: Has worked well in other settings, but need to think it through
(4) Other topics discussed
* High School reconstruction, should we anticipate noise issues?
- we should wait until there is a plan to react on
- town is building this not a developer
* How to mitigate the damage to immigrants due to landscaping noise law
- how else can we enforce landscape noise limits than police?
- landscapers unsure how they can come into compliance
- could the town find a way to help contractors rent the equipment?
- concerns equipment changing rapidly, so obsolescent
Public comments: No public present for comments
Approval of minutes: Previous minutes approved
Motion to adjourn: Barbara Katzenberg made a motion to adjourn and this was agreed by ER,
LR, JL, and BL