By Brian Trompeter
Vienna residents hoping for expanded hours limiting noise from businesses or restricting the use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers likely will be disappointed when the Vienna Town Council votes on a modified noise ordinance in December.
The reformatted and consolidated ordinance will be easier for the public to comprehend, said Town Attorney Steven Briglia, but contains no substantive changes regarding hours when excessive noise is prohibited in some locations.
Following a lively public hearing Nov. 13 that featured spirited testimony from aggravated residents who wanted more restrictive hours and business owners who defended their companies’ practices, Council members voted unanimously to advertise their intention to adopt the modified noise ordinance Dec. 4.
Several town residents pressed the Council to tighten hours when noisy activities could occur in commercial zones. Simran Sran, a pediatrician who lives on Glyndon Street, N.E., said children need eight to 12 hours of sleep per night and that insufficient sleep puts teenagers at risk for a variety of ailments.
“Seven hours of peace a day is less than a human should get,” agreed Maxwell Catalano, who lives on Park Street, N.E.
Several people who work at businesses in the town’s light-industrial area along Dominion Road and Mill Street, N.E., said further restricting operational hours would harm their businesses, many of which have been in place for decades.
Jennifer Kiefhaber of Wheat’s Lawn & Custom Landscape, said the company has implemented multiple measures, including white-noise back-up alarms for its vehicles, to lessen noise impacts on residents.
“Good neighbors help and good neighbors listen,” she said, citing the need to strike a balance between residents and businesses in the community.
(Some residents, including Avril Garland, pressed the Council to ban gas-powered leaf blowers. But others testified that manufacturers of such devices have been reducing their noise impacts and that battery-powered alternatives currently lack the same force when blowing leaves.)
Most Council members opposed extending noise-prohibition hours in commercial areas.
“We have right in the heart of our town have a concentrated industrial zone,” said Council member Charles Anderson. “It’s been there for a long time. It grew up around the railroad track . . . Industrial parks like that generally start business very early.”
Anderson said he was loath to change those operating hours in any material way, perhaps 30 minutes at most.
“A business does what they have to do in order to be able to survive,” said Council member Steve Potter, who favored keeping the noise ordinance as it is.
Vienna Police Chief James Morris said his department stations officers at the industrial zone “almost every day” and trucks are not being loaded or unloaded outside of legal hours. Businesses have taken measures, such as loading trucks in advance and cautioning employees against arriving too early, to comply with town noise rules, he said.
Noise violations in the Mill Street/Dominion Road industrial area tend to occur in the morning, while ones in the evening are more likely to occur at businesses along Maple Avenue, Morris said. Most violations occur about 15 minutes before or after permissible hours, he said.
The Council defeated an amendment proposed by member Ed Somers, which would have changed vehicle loading and unloading start times in commercial zones from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. on non-holiday Mondays through Saturdays. Only he and member Nisha Patel supported the motion.
Council members asked town staff to obtain economic-impact information regard to potential noise-ordinance changes.
The final motion modified the proposed ordinance to apply to all federally recognized holidays – including New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, George Washington’s birthday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and (when applicable) Inauguration Day – but not the day after Thanksgiving, which Vienna recognizes as a holiday.
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The proposed rewritten noise ordinance maintains current town prohibitions on:
• Loading or unloading of commercial vehicles within 300 feet of any residence Mondays through Saturdays from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Prohibited loading and unloading hours are between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. on Sundays, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
• Repair, collection from or servicing of any trash or garbage-compaction, -processing or -disposal equipment located on the exterior of any building within 300 feet of a residence from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. on Sundays and the above-listed holidays.
• Operation of any pile driver; hammer; chain saw; steam-, diesel- or gasoline-powered shovel, derrick or hoist; lawnmower; land- and landscaping-maintenance equipment or other equipment that emits loud or unusual noises between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. Mondays through Fridays and between 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and the holidays listed above.
• Operation of any propulsion engine of a commercial motor vehicle for more than three minutes when the vehicle is parked, left unattended or stopped for reasons of traffic or maintenance during all days and times. The ordinance exempts public vehicles from this provision when they are engaged in required maintenance.
• Operation of internal-combustion-powered refrigeration equipment on trucks, trailers, auxiliary powered equipment or other vehicles when parked for more than 10 minutes.
• Operation, playing of or permitting same of any radio, amplifier, television, record, tape or compact-disk player, drum, musical instrument or similar device in such a way that it can be heard across a residential-property boundary or, in a dwelling complex, can be heard in another unit.
• Sounds emanating from within or upon motor vehicles on public rights-of-way, public property or the grounds of a dwelling complex if the noise can be heard more than 50 feet from its source. This prohibition is in effect at all times.
