HOWELL – The Township Council has introduced an ordinance in a move to adopt the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s model noise ordinance.
Council members voted unanimously to introduce the ordinance on Sept. 19. The second reading and public hearing will be held at the council’s Oct. 17 meeting. Members of the governing body may vote to adopt the ordinance that evening.
The ordinance, which will amend the municipal code, states that “excessive sound is a serious hazard to the public heath, welfare, safety and the quality of life” and that “a substantial body of science and technology exists by which excessive sound may be substantially abated” and that “people have a right to, and should be assured of, an environment free from excessive sound … it is the policy of the township to prevent excessive sound that may jeopardize the health, welfare or safety of the citizens or degrade the quality of life.”
The ordinance makes reference to different scales that are used to measure sound. It differentiates between the C and A weighting networks that are used to measure sound. The ordinance states that “the C weighting network is more sensitive to low frequencies than the A weighting network.”
The ordinance was introduced by the council less than a month after a Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting during which the different ways of measuring sound were discussed.
Resident Marc Parisi lives on Castle Court, behind the Xscape movie theater on Route 9. He maintained that noise from the theater was violating Howell’s code. The township’s zoning officer determined the noise from the theater was not in violation of the code and Parisi appealed the zoning officer’s ruling to the zoning board.
During the zoning board hearing, Eric Zwerling, the director of the Rutgers Noise Technical Assistance Center, New Brunswick, testified as a noise expert and acoustic consultant on behalf of Parisi.
Zwerling said the sound readings he took outside Parisi’s home violated Howell’s noise ordinance when measured using the C scale. He did not dispute the zoning officer’s determination that there was no violation when the sound was measured using the A scale.
The zoning board voted 4-3 to uphold the zoning officer’s decision which determined the theater was not in violation of the noise ordinance.
If the proposed ordinance is adopted by the council, in the future, the zoning officer will use the same scale Zwerling used to measure the noise from the movie theater.
