Code revisions debated: Noise needs quiet study

SALISBURY POST

Rowan County commissioners made the right choice in delaying revisions in the county’s noise ordinance for further study.

It’s not that they should turn a deaf ear to recent complaints ranging from loud power boats to blasting stereos. But, as their discussion of potential enforcement difficulties suggests, devising and policing noise regulations is a complicated, legally tricky business that shouldn’t be rushed. The city of Raleigh, for example, spent three years of discussion and study on the issue before recently approving revised noise codes. Rowan doesn’t need to take that long, but it does need to give the issue more deliberate and indepth study.

Because of its somewhat subjective nature — one person’s noise may be another’s music — and the many sources of potential nuisances, it’s hard to define the problem in a way that lends itself to simple solutions. Nonetheless, governments around the country are having to devise more extensive noise regulations as a growing population creates denser developments and it gets harder to find a little peace and quiet amid booming stereos, whooshing jets, buzzing leaf blowers, bellowing bulldozers and roaring race cars.

To show how hard that peace and quiet can be to find, even the National Park Service is working on a policy that will require parks to monitor noise and establish and enforce natural sound levels. The problem isn’t just snowmobiles, personal watercraft or off-road vehicles. Some nature lovers complain that others are bringing boomboxes, cell phones and beepers into wilderness areas.

Noting the difficulties in crafting a comprehensive noise ordinance, the county attorney suggested that some situations — specifically, complaints about noise at a drag strip — may have to be resolved through the courts. While that may be residents’ only recourse under the current code, a more comprehensive, updated noise ordinance would help keep those cases to a minimum.

Residents shouldn’t expect to be shielded from every dog that barks, but they do have a right to expect reasonable protection under the law from obnoxious noises that intrude into their lives at inappropriate decibel levels and inappropriate hours. They shouldn’t have to resort to litigation to preserve their sanity, or the sanctity of their homes.

There’s no escaping civilization and its tumultuous clamors. But an updated noise code could help us resolve our complaints in a quieter, more civilized way.