BY COUNCIL MEMBER MCDOW:

GENERAL ORDINANCE

CITY OF YONKERS

NOISE CONTROL CODE

I.Legislative Findings and Determination

  1. The City of Yonkers has a substantial and compelling interest in controlling and regulating loud, unnecessary and unusual noise or disruptive vibration within the city limits. The City of Yonkers also has a substantial and compelling interest in controlling disruptive vibration within the city limits.
  2. Excessive noise degrades the environment to the degree that it can:
  3. be harmful to the health, welfare and safety of its inhabitants;
  4. interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life and private property;
  5. be disruptive of sleep which results in a cascade of negative impacts;
  6. cause and/or aggravate health problems; and
  7. provoke antisocial or violent responses by impacted persons.
  8. Effective control of excessive noise is essential to the health and welfare of Yonkers’ inhabitants and to the conduct of the normal pursuit of life, including sleep, recreation and communication.
  9. Individuals and businesses are not required to welcome unwanted and disruptive noise into their homes or workplace and there is no right to force such noise upon an unwilling listener. There is a compelling interest in prohibiting such noise on a content neutral basis.
  10. It is the intent of the Yonkers City Council to prevent excessive noise without infringing on the First Amendment right to unamplified free speech, in all of its forms, within the constraints set by the Constitution and applicable Yonkers statutes. It is intended that this ordinance shall be interpreted as consistent with all such constraints.
  11. It is the intent of the Yonkers City Council, with this ordinance, to gain constructive compliance with the reasonable standards set forth herein.
  12. A substantial body of science and technology exists by which sound and vibration may be substantially abated in order to achieve compliance with this ordinance when operational or behavioral modifications alone cannot achieve this goal.

Now THEREFORE, it is the policy of The City of Yonkers to prevent excessive sound and vibration that may jeopardize the health, welfare, or safety of the citizens or degrade the quality of life, by adopting this NOISE CONTROL CODE.

II.Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this ordinance, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"A" weighted sound level is the sound level as measured using the "A" weighting network with a sound level meter meeting the standards set forth in ANSI S1.4-1971 or its successors. The unit of reporting is dB(A). Sounds measured with the "A" weighting network approximate the response of human hearing when measuring sounds of low to moderate intensity.

“Affected person” means any person who has registered a noise complaint with an authorized enforcement agency that he or she is the receptor of noise on a protected property category, and said affected person has an interest in the protected property category as an owner, tenant, or employee.

“Apartment House” means a building containing three (3) or more apartments
or two (2) apartments in the same building with another principal use,
including common areas restricted to the use of residents such as laundry
rooms, administrative offices, computer rooms, common rooms, vending
machines and health clubs restricted to the use of residents.

"ANSI" means the American National Standards Institute which serves as the administrator and coordinator of the United States private sector voluntary standardization system. ANSI facilitates development of American National Standards (ANSs) by establishing consensus among qualified groups. ANSs in the fields of acoustics and sound measurement are developed by the Acoustical Society of America in order to standardize practices and equipment.

“Banquet or Catering Facility” means an establishment which serves food
and drink and provides entertainment to paying customers and their invited
guests on weddings, bar mitzvahs, birthdays and other similar occasions.

"Boom Box" is slang for self-contained, portable, hand-held music or sound amplification or reproduction equipment capable of emitting sound that is audible at distances exceeding the permissible limits established within this ordinance.

"Boom Car" is slang for a personal or commercial vehicle with music amplification or reproduction equipment capable of emitting sound that is audible at distances exceeding the permissible limits established within this ordinance.

"C" weighted sound level is the sound level as measured using the "C" weighting network with a sound level meter meeting the standards set forth in ANSI S1.4-1971 or its successors. The unit of reporting is dB(C). The "C" weighting network is more sensitive to low frequencies than is the "A" weighting network, thus it is an appropriate measure for determining the intrusiveness of the bass component of amplified music within a receiving dwelling.

"Commercial facility" means any premises, property or facility involving traffic in goods or furnishing of services for sale or profit including, but not limited to:

1.Banking and other financial institutions

2.Dining establishments;

3.Establishments for providing retail or wholesale services;

4.Establishments for recreation and entertainment;

5.Establishments providing commercial living accommodations and commercial property used for human habitation, when such is the source of the sound under investigation;

6.Office buildings;

7.Transportation;

8.Warehouses;

“Commercial School” means an educational or training establishment
operated for a business, including the instruction of language, dance, fine
or applied arts, martial arts, business, computers, trades, vocations, or
the like.

"Community service facility," for the purposes of this code, means any non-residential facility used to provide services to the public, including but not limited to:

1.Club meeting halls, offices and facilities;

2.Organization offices and facilities;

3.Facilities for the support and practice of religion;

4.Private and parochial schools.

"Continuous sound" means any sound with a duration of more than one second, as measured with a sound level meter set to the "slow" meter response.

"Construction" means any site preparation, assembly, erection, repair, alteration or similar action, including demolition of buildings or structures.

“Corrected Source Sound Level” means the sound level of the source under investigation, alone. This level excludes extraneous and neighborhood residual sound sources, by subtracting the measured Neighborhood Residual Sound Level from the measured Total Sound Level. The Corrected Source Sound Level is compared to permissible sound level limit for compliance determination.

"Decibel (dB)" is the practical unit of measurement for sound pressure level. The number of "decibels" of a measured sound is equal to twenty (20) times the logarithm to the base 10 of the ratio of the sound pressure of the measured sound to the standardized sound pressure of 20 micropascals (zero decibels) which is the average threshold of hearing for a person with very good hearing. The decibel scale is logarithmic, and as such, an increase or decrease of 3 dB is a doubling or halving of sound pressure.

"Demolition" means any dismantling, destruction or removal of buildings, structures, or roadways.

"Emergency energy release device" means a device used specifically to release excess energy on a non-scheduled basis as necessary for purposes of safety.

"Emergency work" means any work or action necessary to deliver essential public services including, but not limited to, repairing water, gas, electricity, telephone, sewer facilities, or public transportation facilities, removing fallen trees on public rights-of-way, dredging navigational waterways, or abating life-threatening conditions; on public or private property.

"Extraneous sound" means a sound of high intensity and relatively short duration which is neither part of the neighborhood residual sound, nor comes from the sound source under investigation. Extraneous sounds are excluded from measurements of the Neighborhood Residual Sound Level and the Total Sound Level. Examples of extraneous sound sources may include: intermittent aircraft, car horns, human vocalizations, particularly loud motor vehicles, intermittent traffic, etc.

"Frequency" means the time rate of repetition of sound waves in cycles per second, reported as Hertz (Hz). "Frequency" is sometimes colloquially referred to as "pitch." Low frequency sounds can correspond to the bass notes in music. Low frequency sound waves travel farther and penetrate structures more efficiently than high frequency sound waves.

" Government service center" means any facility and its related premises, property or equipment used to provide governmental services to the public including, but not limited to:

1.Maintenance centers;

2.Offices and buildings of agencies or instrumentalities of government;

3.Schools;

4.Waste collection centers;

5.Waste recycling centers;

6.Water and sewage facilities.

"Impulsive sound" means either a single pressure peak or a single burst (multiple pressure peaks) that has a duration of less than one second, such as an impact or series of impacts.

"Industrial facility" means any activity and its related premises, property, facilities, or equipment involving the fabrication, manufacture, or production of durable or nondurable goods.

"Motor vehicle" means any vehicle that is propelled by an engine or motor, including but not limited to trucks, automobiles, motor cycles and off road vehicles.

“Motorized equipment” means any power equipment utilizing an internal combustion engine, for the purposes of this code.

"Muffler" means a properly functioning sound dissipative device or system for abating the sound of escaping gasses on motorized equipment where such a device is part of the normal configuration of the equipment. The muffler must be designed to substantially reduce the level of the sound emissions, and may not exceed the sound levels of the original muffler supplied by the manufacturer, or accentuate the low frequencies of these emissions.

“Multi-Family or Multiple Family Dwelling” means a building containing
three (3) or more dwelling units, occupied or intended to be occupied by
three (3) or more families, each living independently of each other and with
their own sleeping, sanitary and cooking facilities. A building containing
three (3) or more such families where separation of the units is provided by
means of a wall, floor, door or other type of screen or partition, or with a
separate outside entrance, or basement access, shall be considered a
multiple-family dwelling

"Multi-use property" means any distinct parcel of land that is used for more than one category of activity. Examples include, but are not limited to:

1. A commercial, residential, industrial or public service property having boilers, incinerators, elevators, automatic garage doors, air conditioners, laundry rooms, utility provisions, or health and recreational facilities, or other similar devices or areas, either in the interior or on the exterior of the building, which may be a source of elevated sound levels at another category on the same distinct parcel of land; or

2.A building which is both commercial (usually on the ground floor) and residential property located above, behind, below or adjacent.

"Neighborhood residual sound level" means that measured value which represents the summation of the sound from all of the discrete sources affecting a given site at a given time, exclusive of extraneous sounds, and those from the source under investigation. Neighborhood Residual Sound Level is synonymous with background sound level. Neighborhood residual sounds are differentiated from extraneous sounds by the fact that the former are more steady state, although they may not be continuous.

"Noise control officer" means an officer of the City of Yonkers trained in the measurement of sound, and as defined in Section V below.

"Noise sensitive" means a facility whose operations may be detrimentally impacted by excessive sound levels. Such facilities include but are not limited to:

1.Schools;

2.Houses of worship;

3. Outpatient medical facilities.

“Offices of Philanthropic Organizations” means a building or group of
buildings containing offices for use by civic, charitable, philanthropic,
fraternal, trade union or veterans organizations, but excluding residential
facilities and social welfare facilities such as soup kitchens, emergency or
overnight shelters, or the dispensing of medical care or other forms of
personal aid.

“Person” means any individual, corporation, company, association, governmental entity, society, firm, partnership or joint-stock company.

“Plainly audible” means any sound that can be detected by a person using his or her unaided hearing faculties. As an example, if the sound source under investigation is a sound amplification or reproduction device, the detection of the rhythmic bass component of the music is sufficient to verify plainly audible sound. The noise control officer need not determine the title, specific words, or the artist performing the song.

“Private Recreation Club” means a building and/or related facilities
owned or operated by a corporation, association, or group of individuals
established for the recreational use and enjoyment of its members and not
primarily for profit, and whose members pay dues and meet certain prescribed
qualifications for membership

“Private right-of-way” means any street, avenue, boulevard, road, highway, sidewalk, alley or easement that is owned, leased, or controlled by a non-governmental entity.

“Public right-of-way” means any street, avenue, boulevard, road, highway, sidewalk, alley or easement that is owned, leased, or controlled by a governmental entity.

"Public space” means any real property or structures thereon that are owned, leased, or controlled by a governmental entity.

“Pure Tone,” for the purposes of this code, means a sound with a steady tonal quality. The sound emissions must be comprised of a single frequency or a narrow cluster of frequencies, which may be referred to as a whine, hum or buzz.

"Real property line" means either (a) the imaginary line including its vertical extension that separates one parcel of real property from another; (b) the vertical and horizontal boundaries of a dwelling unit that is part of a multi-dwelling unit building; or (c) on a multi-use property, the interface between the two portions of the property on which different categories of activity are being performed (e.g., if the multi-use property is a building which is residential upstairs and commercial downstairs, then the real property line would be the interface between the residential area and the commercial area).

“Residence” means a home, abode or place where an individual or household
is actually living at a specific point in time.

“Residential districts or zones” means the following districts or zones: the S-200 District, the S-100 District, the S-75 District, the S-60 District, the S-50 District, the T District, the MG District, the M District, and the A District.

"Residential property," as a receiving land use classification in this code, means property used for human habitation including, but not limited to:

1.Private property used for human habitation;

2.Commercial living accommodations and commercial property used for human habitation, such as a hotel or apartment house;

3.Recreational and entertainment property used for human habitation;

4.Community service property used for human habitation;

5.Hospitals, long-term medical or residential care facilities

“School” means any place of education or instruction, other than a
commercial school, college, university, theological seminary, convent,
monastery, day care center, children's day camp and religious retreat.

"Sound level meter" means an instrument that conforms to ANSI S1.4-1971 or its successors.

"Total sound level" means that measured level which represents the summation of the sounds from the sound source under investigation and the neighborhood residual sounds which affect a given place at a given time, exclusive of extraneous sound sources.

"Weekday" means any day that is not a legal holiday, and beginning on Monday at 7:00 a.m. and ending on the following Friday at 6:00 p.m.

"Weekends" means beginning on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and ending on the following Monday at 7:00 a.m.

III.Applicability

1.This code applies to sound sources and receptors within the City of Yonkers

IV. Noise Control Administrator

The Noise Control Administrator shall have the power to:

1.Coordinate the noise control activities of all departments in The City of Yonkers and cooperate with all other public bodies and agencies to the extent practicable; and

2.Review the actions of The City of Yonkers and advise of the effect, if any, of such actions on noise control; and

3. Review and advise on the appropriateness of public and private projects, which require the mandatory review or approval by other departments or boards, in order to assist in the determination of whether the proposed project may have difficulty in complying with this ordinance, however this review shall not be construed as mandatory or the findings as binding; and

4.Promulgate and publish rules and procedures, in accordance with the City Code, to establish techniques for measuring noise, and to provide for clarification, interpretation, and implementation of this chapter; and Rreview at least every three (3) years the provisions of this chapter and recommend revisions consistent with technology to reduce noise, or to address new sound sources within The City of Yonkers, provided, however, that failure to review and/or recommend revisions shall not affect the validity of the provisions then in effect; and

6.Select and approve training protocols for Noise Control Officers: and

7.Grant, review and revoke abatement orders pursuant to Section IX, below; and

87.Grant, review and revoke Permits of Variance pursuant to Section X, below.

V.Noise Control

Where the provisions of this ordinance require the measurement of sound with the use of a sound level meter, such measurement shall be made by noise control officers. A person shall be qualified to be a noise control officer if the person meets the criteria set forth in the definition above and completes, at a frequency specified the qualifications approved by the Noise Control Administrator, a noise certification and re-certification course which has been approved by the Administrator. When no measurement of the sound level is necessary to determine whether a sound or sound source is in violation of the provisions of this code, or when the level of sound is measured by a Noise Control Officer as being in violation of the provisions of this Code, any official for the City of Yonkers who enforces local laws or regulations having jurisdiction in the area where the violation takes place, may issue a summons for violations of this Code.