Riverside to talk expanding noise code

By Kalen McCain
Posted 5/28/20

The Riverside City Council plans to discuss a comprehensive expansion to its noise ordinance at the next council meeting on June 1. The proposed changes – drawn from Coralville, West Liberty …

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Riverside to talk expanding noise code

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The Riverside City Council plans to discuss a comprehensive expansion to its noise ordinance at the next council meeting on June 1. The proposed changes – drawn from Coralville, West Liberty and North Liberty noise policies – are intended to make noise control enforceable for local police.

To avert the need for specific sound-testing equipment, the proposal includes a reasonability clause which defines problematic noise as that which disturbs “a reasonable person being of normal sensitivities,” rather than using a decibel-based definition, which would be harder to enforce.

While other city noise ordinances differentiate quiet hour windows for each noise disturbance, the city council considered a catch-all 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. window for its policy during its May 4 meeting.

Snow removal and emergency vehicles would likely be exempt from the otherwise catch-all quiet hours, as would sounds caused by persons with a city-granted noise permit.

At present, the city lacks a specific ordinance for noise control.

Existing noise regulation measures are minimal, dispersed among clauses of animal control and public peace ordinances, as well as the city’s general traffic regulations.

Riverside City Attorney William Sueppel recommended 11 inclusions and 16 exemptions to a list of noise violations in a memorandum to the City Council on May 18.

One notable inclusion in the memo was the playing of instruments and sound equipment “to the disturbance of any adjoining property.” Audio players installed in trucks and cars would be exempt so long as they are “not audible for more than 50 feet away from the vehicle,” a distance which Councilperson Edgar McGuire said might be too short at the May 18 meeting.

The proposals restrict any noise caused by “repairing, rebuilding, modifying or testing of motor vehicles” as a disturbance during the yet undetermined nighttime quiet window. The proposed rules would restrict sound from motorcycles and recreational vehicles on private property from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.