According to a letter to the Decatur City Commission by City Manager Peggy Merriss in this week’s meeting materials (page 62 of the PDF), the commission has asked city staff to evaluate the differences between Decatur and DeKalb’s noise ordinances in a response to a resident concern.
The evaluation found that for the most part, Decatur and DeKalb’s noise ordinances to be quite similar, with restricted times for various noisy activities usually varying by an hour and decibel levels varying by at most 10 dB(A) in either direction. (See page 64 of the meeting materials for the full comparison chart)
However, the one “main difference” between the two ordinances is that Decatur does not provide specific hours when “landscaping” noise is allowed. In DeKalb, the ordinance only allows for landscaping power tools to be used from 7a-9p on weekdays and 9a-9p on the weekend.
The City Manager’s letter suggests that if the city wants to amend the ordinance that they issue an announcement to the public and gather feedback from residents through the website, written comments and Open City Hall.
Thanks for this. We live in unincorporated DeKalb south of East Lake (a Decatur address that annoys COD residents whenever there’s a crime report from the neighborhood). Our neighbors have been unresponsive when we’ve asked them to have their landscaping company come a little later than 7:45 on Saturday mornings. Now we have some ammo in the discussion.
Will this apply to City workers and contractors as well?
Prior to the construction of the Rec Center, there was a noisy landscaping crew at Scott Park (or at the public library) at 7:00am on many Sunday mornings.
It would apply to anyone.