City eyes new noise ordinance
Under a new city ordinance, loud concerts and events that go past 10 p.m. will require a special use permit.
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
With the city growing, noise has increasingly become a problem.
To that end, the City of Columbia Falls has crafted a new noise ordinance. On Monday night the city council voted to move the ordinance forward, though it already began to tweak the language of the proposed law and fixed a major typographical error in the draft.
The law comes after meeting with representatives of The Coop, the Glacier Lanes Bowling Alley and the Gunsight Bar.
All three have music venues that have drawn the ire of residents in the past.
The law is based, in part on a similar law from Beaverton, Oregon.
The law prohibits a person from making “Any unreasonably loud or raucous noise within the jurisdictional limits of the city.”
It also prohibits, “Any noise, which unreasonably disturbs, injures, or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace, or safety of reasonable individuals of ordinary sensitivity and in addition … any noise which is so harsh, prolonged, unnatural, or unusual in time, place, or duration as to occasion unreasonable discomfort to any place to which the general public has access and a right to resort for business, entertainment, or other lawful purpose, but does not necessarily mean a place devoted solely to the uses of the public. It shall also include the front or immediate area of any store, shop, restaurant, tavern, or other place of business and also public grounds, areas, or parks.”
There are a host of caveats, however. It does not regulate noise from vehicles on open roads, for example. Venues can have also have late night concerts with a special use permit from the city.
That happens primarily during Heritage Days, when outdoor concerts typically go later into the night. The law, if adopted, would allow, for example, concerts to go until 10 p.m.
The council suggested some immediate tweaks to the law. For example, one section would prohibit running a blower or lawnmower before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. Councilmembers noted that many folks cut their lawn later at night because it’s cooler and in the winter they blow snow early in the morning. They suggested 10 p.m. would be more appropriate.
There was also a typo that prohibited construction between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. It should have been from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Those changes will be made before bringing the law to the public.
The city will formally advertise the law and bring it to a public hearing at its June 6 meeting at 7 p.m.
Mayor Don Barnhart doubted that the law could be enforced, but city attorney Justin Breck noted that with the exemptions in the law, it would likely work. The draft had also been vetted by police Chief Clint Peters.
A draft of the law is on the city’s website. Click on the agenda packet link for May 16.