[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village
of Phoenix 9-18-2012 by L.L. No. 6-2012. Amendments noted where applicable.]
This Chapter 123 shall be known as "Noise."
A.
The Village Board determines that the making and creating of excessive
noise within the limits of the Village of Phoenix is a condition which
has existed for some time and the extent and volume of such noise
is increasing.
B.
The Village Board further determines that noise on streets, sidewalks,
public parks or places is most likely to interfere with the peace
and quiet of the inhabitants of the Village and to injure human, plant
and animal life, property and business.
C.
The Village Board further determines that schools, churches, courts,
hospitals, nursing home and homes for the aged are places where special
precaution must be taken in order to ensure their proper functioning.
D.
The Village Board further determines that construction activities,
sound-reproduction devices for miscellaneous purposes, loading and
unloading of boxes and containers, and animals and birds are among
some of the most frequent causes of annoying and disturbing noise.
A.
The Village of Phoenix hereby intends to prohibit all excessive noise
from all sources subject to its police power in order to preserve,
protect and promote the public health, safety and welfare and the
peace, quiet, comfort and repose of the inhabitants of the Village
and visitors thereto and to prevent injury to human, plant and animal
life, property and business, to foster the convenience and comfort
of its inhabitants and to facilitate the enjoyment of the natural
attractions of the Village.
B.
This chapter shall be liberally construed to provide an effective
noise control program.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
The measurement of sound approximating the auditory sensitivity
of the human ear as measured with a sound-level meter using the A-weighing
network. The unit of measurement is the dB(A).
Any or all activity, except tunneling, necessary or incidental
to the erection, demolition, assembling, altering, installing or equipment
of buildings, public or private highways, roads, premises, parks,
utility lines (including such lines in already constructed tunnels)
or other property, including land clearing, grading, excavating and
filling.
The unit of sound measurement, on a logarithmic scale, of
the ratio of the magnitude of a particular sound pressure to a standard
reference pressure which, for the purpose of this chapter, shall be
0.0002 microbar.
A public calamity or an exposure of any person or property
to imminent danger.
Any gong, siren, whistle, air horn or similar device, the
use of which on emergency vehicles is permitted by Subdivision 26
of § 375 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
Any sound which endangers or injures the safety or health
of humans or animals or annoys or disturbs a reasonable person of
normal sensitivity or endangers or injures personal or real property.
Every device in, upon or by which any person or property
is or may be transported or drawn, which is propelled by any power
other than muscular power, except vehicles which run only upon rails
or tracks. This definition shall include but not be limited to trucks,
buses, automobiles, vans, motorcycles, motor-driven cycles, motor
scooters, dune buggies, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, go-carts,
minibikes, trail bikes and all other types of motorized recreational
vehicles.
Any erratic, intermittent, statistically random oscillation
or unwanted sound.
Any individual, partnership, company, corporation, association,
firm, organization, governmental agency, administration or department
or any other group of individuals, or any officer or employee thereof.
A device intended primarily for the production or reproduction
of sound, including but not limited to any radio receiver, television
receiver, tape recorder, musical instrument, phonograph or sound-amplifying
system.
A.
No person shall make, continue, cause, or suffer or permit to be
made or continued, and the owner and the person in control of a motor
vehicle and the person in control of a premises shall not suffer nor
permit to be made or continued, any excessive noise. It shall be prima
facie evidence and rebuttable presumption of a violation of this section
if noise emanating from any source, including, but not limited to,
voices or other sounds caused or emitted by humans, is:
(1)
Audible beyond the property line of the premises from which it emanates
between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.
(2)
Audible at a distance of 50 feet beyond the property line of the
premises from which it emanates between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and
10:00 p.m.
(3)
Audible at a distance of 50 feet from the source if emanating from
a public street, public park or other public place.
B.
The provisions of this section shall not apply to noise emanating
from the following:
(2)
Festivals, parades, block parties and other special events where
a permit has been obtained from the Village Clerk's office for
such purpose.
(3)
Political or religious activities or the operation or use of any
organ, bell, chimes or other similar instrument from on or within
any church, synagogue, temple, mosque or other house of worship.
(4)
Any permitted athletic competition or recreational event held on
athletic fields, stadiums or public places in the Village.
(5)
Lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, chainsaws, tillers, mulchers,
chippers and other devices used for the care and maintenance of lawns,
yards and vegetation, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and sunset.
(6)
Air conditioners.
(7)
Snowblowers, snowthrowers or snowplows.
(8)
Emergency generators.
(9)
Manufacturing operations.
C.
Any motor vehicle used in connection with the commission of a violation
of this section shall be towed in accordance with the applicable provisions
of the Village Code.
No person shall operate or use or cause to be operated or used
any sound-reproduction device for commercial or business advertising
purposes or for the purpose of attracting attention to any performance,
show or sale or display of merchandise in connection with any commercial
or business enterprise, including those engaged in the sale of radios,
television sets, phonographs, tape recorders, phonograph records or
tapes in front or outside of any building, place or premises or in
or through any aperture of such building, place or premises abutting
on or adjacent to a public street, park or place or in or upon any
vehicle operated, standing or being in or on any public street, park
or place where the sound therefrom may be heard upon any public street,
park or place or from any stand, platform or other structure or from
any airplane or other device used for flying, flying over the Village
or on a boat or on the waters within the jurisdiction of the Village
or anywhere on the public streets, parks or places; provided, however,
that nothing in this section shall prohibit vehicles from which ice
cream products and similar products are sold from being equipped with
a bell not exceeding three inches in diameter, or a set of up to four
such bells, nor prohibit the use thereof by the driver of such vehicle,
provided that no such bell or set of bells shall be capable of being
heard from a distance greater than 400 feet, and provided further
that no such bells shall be used for any purpose between the hours
of 9:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. nor be used as an ordinary warning signal
at any time.
No person shall operate or use any radio, musical instrument,
television, phonograph or other machine or device in or on any bus
or public means of conveyance, other than taxicabs, in such manner
that the sound emanating from such sound-reproduction device is audible
to another person.
No person shall cause the sounding of any horn or signaling
device on any automobile, motorcycle, bicycle or other vehicle, except
as a danger warning.
No person shall operate or use or cause to be operated or used
any emergency signal device, except:
A.
Sound level.
(1)
No person shall operate or cause to be operated any motor vehicle
in such a manner that the sound level emitted therefrom exceeds 80
dB(A) either:
(2)
This subsection shall not apply to those motor vehicles being operated
upon a public street to which § 386 of the New York State
Vehicle and Traffic Law applies.
B.
This section shall apply to all motor vehicles, whether or not duly
licensed or registered.
C.
Any motor vehicle used in connection with the commission of a violation
of this section shall be towed in accordance with the applicable provisions
of the Village Code.
A.
No person shall engage in or permit any person to be engaged in construction activities which create excessive noise at the property limits of the construction site between the hours of 9:00 p.m. of one day and 7:00 a.m. of the following day on any day of the week, except as is permitted in Subsections B and C hereof.
B.
Following the receipt of a written application for a variance from the requirements of Subsection A, the Mayor, Code Enforcement Officer, or Village Administrator, within a reasonable time, may grant a variance authorizing such construction activities upon the applicant's demonstration of hardship and/or practical difficulty in meeting said requirements or upon a determination that the public interest will be served by the granting of the requested variance. The Mayor, Code Enforcement Officer, or Village Administrator shall set any stipulations deemed necessary in the interest of the public health, safety and/or welfare at the time of granting such a variance.
C.
In the case of an emergency, construction activities directly connected
with the abatement of such emergency may be undertaken without obtaining
a variance, for a period not to exceed 72 hours from the commencement
of such activities, during which time application for a variance hereunder
shall be made. In such an emergency, construction activities shall
not continue after the seventy-two-hour period unless, prior to the
expiration of that period, at least verbal approval is issued by the
Mayor, Code Enforcement Officer, or Village Administrator or his or
her authorized subordinates to continue such activities and unless
written confirmation of such verbal approval is issued within four
hours following the start of the next normal business day of the Village
government. Approval or confirmation shall not be withheld unreasonably.
No person shall create or permit to be created any noise on
any street, sidewalk or public place, or on private property adjacent
to any school, institution of learning, church or court while the
same is in use, or adjacent to any hospital, nursing home or home
for the aged, which noise unreasonably interferes with the working
of such school, institution of learning, church or court or which
disturbs or annoys patients in a hospital, nursing home or home for
the aged.
A.
No person shall use or operate or suffer or permit to be used or
operated, and the owner and the person in control of a motor vehicle
and the person in control of a premises shall not suffer nor permit
to be used or operated, any radio, television, stereo, compact disc
player, musical instrument or other machine or device for the producing,
reproducing or amplification of sound with louder volume than is necessary
for convenient hearing for the person or persons who are voluntary
listeners thereto. It shall be prima facie evidence of a violation
of this section if sound emanating from such machine or device is:
(1)
Audible beyond the property line of the premises upon which it is
being used between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.
(2)
Audible at a distance of 50 feet beyond the property line of the
premises upon which it is being used between the hours of 8:00 a.m.
and 10:00 p.m.
(3)
Audible at a distance of 50 feet from such machine or device if operated
from within a motor vehicle on a public street.
(4)
Audible at a distance of 50 feet from such machine or device when
operated in a public park or other public place.
B.
The provisions of this section shall not apply to the following:
(1)
Funeral processions or use of such devices by a church.
(2)
The production of music in connection with any parade authorized
under any provision of law.
(3)
Festivals, musical performances, block parties and other special
events where a permit has been obtained from the Office of Special
Events for such purpose.
(4)
The use of amplifiers or other sound-producing instruments or equipment
in connection with any religious or political activity or any permitted
athletic competition or recreational event held on athletic fields,
stadiums or public places in the Village.
C.
Any motor vehicle used in connection with the commission of a violation
of this section shall be towed in accordance with the applicable provisions
of the Village Code.
No person shall make or permit to be made excessive noise in
connection with loading or unloading of any vehicle or the opening,
unloading or destruction of bales, boxes, crates and containers.
No person shall keep or permit the keeping of any animal or
bird which makes excessive noise.
A.
Contracts with Village.
(1)
Contract. As used in this section, the term "contract" means any
written agreement, purchase order or instrument whereby the Village
is committed to expend or does expend funds authorized by the capital
or annual budget of the Village, in return for work, labor, services,
supplies, equipment, materials or any combination of the foregoing;
however, the term "contract" shall not include:
(a)
Contracts for financial or other assistance made with a government.
(b)
Contracts, resolutions, indentures, declarations of trust or
other instruments authorizing or relating to the authorization, issuance,
award and sale of bonds, certificates of indebtedness, notes or other
fiscal obligations of the Village, or consisting thereof.
(c)
Employment by the Village of officers and employees of the Village.
(2)
Contracting agency. As used in this section, the term "contracting
agency" means any board, bureau, department, commission or other agency
of the government of the Village, or any official thereof, who or
which is authorized to and does, on behalf of the Village, provide
for, enter into, award or administer contracts or any other public
agency which enters into, awards or administers contracts pursuant
to which funds authorized by the capital budget of the Village of
Phoenix are expended.
B.
Contract provisions. No contract shall be awarded or entered into
by a contracting agency unless such contract contains provisions requiring
that:
(1)
Devices and activities which will be operated, conducted, constructed
or manufactured pursuant to the contract will be operated, conducted,
constructed or manufactured in compliance with all of the laws, rules
and regulations in effect on the date of the execution of the contract,
of all federal, state and local governmental bodies and agencies.
(2)
Such devices and activities incorporate advances in the art of noise
control developed for the kind and level of noise emitted or produced
by such devices and activities.
A person violating any provision of this chapter shall be subject to the penalties set forth in § 142-3 of the Village Code.
The provisions of any section of this chapter shall not be deemed
to modify or otherwise affect or be in substitution for any provision
of any other section of this chapter or other chapter of the Village
Code of the Village of Phoenix but shall be cumulative thereto.
If the provisions of this chapter are inconsistent with any
other provision in the Village Code of the Village of Phoenix, or
with any rule or regulation of any department, bureau or governmental
agency of the Village of Phoenix, the provisions of this chapter shall
be controlling.
A.
This chapter shall be administered and enforced by the Village police,
any other law enforcement agency with jurisdiction within the Village
of Phoenix, and by the Village Code Enforcement Officer, and the Neighborhood
Service Centers Administrators.
B.
The Chief of Police shall develop and promulgate measurement standards,
testing methods and procedures to provide for the effective implementation
and enforcement of this chapter.
Any person who observes or has knowledge of a violation of this
chapter may file a signed deposition or statement, under oath or affirmed
under penalty of perjury, with a police officer, specifying the objectionable
conduct, the date thereof, and the name and address, if known, of
the alleged violator. A police officer shall investigate each complaint
and, if the complaint is supported by probable cause, issue a notice
of violation therefor.
