The Town Council continued its review of proposed amendments to the Town Code noise regulations at its Dec. 1 session, but no action was taken at that meeting.

Discussion continued to center on how loud is appropriate and where the noise should be measured.

Staff was proposing that decibel measurements in response to complaints be taken inside the location of the complainant. After discussion, that changed to a measurement on the complainant’s property outside and adjacent to the structure.

It was also suggested that the decibel levels considered a violation be set at 80 as a maximum during daylight hours and 50 overnight. Council considered 70 more appropriate than 80. The 50 standard would remain.

The hours defining daytime and overnight would be 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. That was adjusted from a proposal of 9 p.m. as the evening cutoff. The existing seasonal adjustments would be eliminated from the ordinance.

Special activities with a use permit would be permitted to go to 11 p.m. with a reduction in volume after 10 p.m.

Mark Stahl, an attorney representing residents of the Villas at CopperWynd, told the council it would be impossible to violate the ordinance if measured from inside the structure.

“To reach 70 decibels inside it needs to be 113 decibels outside,” Stahl said. “Residents are not allowed the peaceable enjoyment of their own property.”

Resident John Kirkeide said the proposal offers “zero” protection.

“Staff should be embarrassed to bring this forward,” Kirkeide said. “Where is this coming from, is there an 800 pound gorilla in the room?”

Mayor Linda Kavanagh stepped in to defend staff.

“I thank staff for the work they did on this,” Kavanagh said. “They worked very hard to provide council with the best information.

“I really take exception to the criticism of staff.”

Councilman Art Tolis asked to hear from the Sheriff’s Office on how they deal with complaints now.

Sheriff’s Capt. Dave Letourneau said he was not given much time before the council meeting to review the logs. He said they found 140 calls for service on noise complaints during 2016.

“Most of those are things we can’t do anything about, like aircraft noise such as helicopters,” Letourneau said.

The list of calls ranges from people complaining about their upstairs neighbor walking too loudly across the floor, to construction noise, landscapers, alarms, music and of course, barking dogs.

“From a law enforcement perspective, it doesn’t matter what the decibel level is, we still get the calls,” Letourneau said.

Whether a citation is issued is often a judgement call by the deputy responding. The person making the noise will be asked to turn down the volume. If a deputy is called back to the same place later they may write a citation.

Letourneau said he believes the proposal to measure the noise level outside on the property of the complainant makes the most sense. Council further decided to use the language “adjacent to the structure” to compensate for large properties.

“I respect the work everyone has done here, but I’m afraid this is going to open up an enforcement nightmare,” Tolis said. “I support MCSO in moving forward as they have been using their discretion.

“I think we need to table this.”

“The reason we are here is because we have been having issues,” Councilman Henry Leger said. “I don’t think it complicates things to provide law enforcement with standards to help them make their decisions.

“We are here to protect the rights of residents.”

Town Manager Grady Miller said staff would address the changes proposed by the council discussion and would likely have the ordinance ready for a council vote at its next session on Dec. 15.

Town Attorney Andrew McGuire said he found that the City of Tempe has a good provision for addressing noise complaints in multi-family dwellings. He said he would include that provision in the town’s ordinance to address potential concerns related to the Park Place apartment complex.