SALISBURY — The Rowan County Board of Commissioners heard a presentation on potential updates to the county’s noise ordinance during the meeting on Monday, which included an increase in the fines and an expansion of its jurisdiction to include non-amplified sound.

Currently, the county’s noise ordinance is very minimalist, said County Planning Director Ed Muire, only stating that it is unlawful to operate sound equipment emitting “sound that is unreasonable.” The ordinance is in effect all 24 hours of the day and leaves the issue “solely up to the discretion of the responding officer as to whether or not it constitutes an unreasonable sound,” he said.

The current ordinance also includes separate fines for repeat violations, with a first offense being $100, a second offense being $200 and a third offense being $300.

Muire’s presentation comes after the commissioners asked the planning department and planning board to look into updating the ordinance, in particular the penalties for violations.

Following that request, the planning staff and board looked into the ordinance and came back with several ideas for updates. One was to increase the fines for violation and add in specific language on what constituted a repeat violation. The new fine would be $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second offense and $1,000 for a third violation if the third occurs within a week of the second. If it occurs more than a week out, the additional offenses would receive a fine of $500.

Another recommendation was to expand the ordinance to include non-amplified sound, such as parties or other gatherings that become unreasonably loud without the use of sound equipment.

Other amendments included the banning of tannerite explosions, discharging firearms at certain distances from residences and sound amplification devices between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

No decisions on changes were made on Monday, as Muire said that he was only looking for specific direction from the commissioners before asking the Rowan County Planning Board to consider and vote.

“My concern is that this county is changing rapidly. The farmland we used to have, my grandfather lived in Cleveland and had 600 acres and that’s where he’d hunt. It was his property and nobody would complain because he didn’t have any neighbors. Well, it ain’t going to be that way anymore. So, I think it’s time we got proactive with this and put some guidelines in place so we’re not here every two years having to change,” said Commissioner Craig Pierce.