City OKs new noise ordinance

SANDPOINT — A series of public complaints during the city's August meetings prompted City Attorney Scot Campbell to propose council member repeal the current city noise ordinance and replace it with a new one.

Sandpoint City Council members, with the exception of Councilman Bob Camp, voted Wednesday to approve the new ordinance. Camp told the Daily Bee he doesn't agree with the ordinance because ordinances are passed in hopes of correcting a situation, but another situation always comes up that requires another ordinance. Over time, more and more freedom is lost, he said.

Every time you pass an ordinance it restricts some kind of freedom of speech or freedom of assembly," Camp said. "I just don't believe in that."

Complaints by community members on Aug. 3 and Aug. 10 revolved around anti-abortion protesters setting up during the Farmers Market at Farmin Park. The individuals from the Abolish Human Abortion Movement, along with holding up signs that members of the public found disturbing, were alleged to be aggressively passing out handbills, which was a topic of the Aug. 10 meeting. During that meeting, public comment revealed the community was concerned more with the amplified speech and the visuals than the handbilling. While Campbell said there is nothing the city can do about the visuals as per the First Amendment, the amplified speech was something he could address.

Campbell said he combined two types of standards for noise ordinance enforcement in the new code — subjective and objective — which he said generally work together.

In his proposal, Campbell said older noise ordinance included terms such as "excessive," "unnecessary" and "raucous," which were subjective in nature. Those terms were eliminated in the previous noise ordinance. To reduce subjectivity in the new ordinance, Campbell added and defined terms such as "noise disturbance" and "plainly audible."

Noise disturbance, for example, is defined as any sound or vibration which:

• May disturb or annoy reasonable persons of normal sensitivities; or

• Causes or tends to cause an adverse effect on the public health and welfare; or

• Endangers or injures people; or

• Endangers or injures personal or real property.

Objective standards include adding a maximum sound level, which requires the use of sound level meters to enforce. For example, under the section of City Code pertaining to loudspeakers and public address systems it states the sound is not to exceed 60 decibels as measured from the property boundary, or at a distance of 100 feet or more on a public right-of-way or on public property. The code specifically states this does not apply to loud speakers or public address systems in connection with permitted athletic or recreation events.

In the new ordinance, Campbell said he added some he left some things out, such as vehicle noise which could be changed in the future if the need arises.

"I included things like construction noise because I thought was important because you may sometimes have to work 24 hours a day or may have to work into the evening," Campbell said.

Construction activities that create noise disturbance are not allowed between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., except in certain situations such as emergency construction.

Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon said enforcement is often complaint driven. For penalties, he said education is a big factor. He said when an officer responds to a complaint regarding any city ordinance such as noise, the offender typically doesn't realize they were in violation.

"Usually that solves it," Coon said. "We may have some situations where someone doesn't want to comply, and then after the warning and the education would come a citation.

The first citable violation is an infraction that may require a fine, not exceeding $100. The second violation is punishable by a fine of no more than $300 and the third violation is punishable as a misdemeanor, as stated in the City Code.