Item 1: PH on Ordinance Concerning Noise Disturbance

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ATTACHMENT A MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room-Eugene City Hall August 16, 2006 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Jennifer Solomon, Bonny Bettman,David Kelly, Andrea Ortiz, Gary Pape, George Poling, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Abatement of Noise Pollution City Manager Dennis Taylor introduced Land Use Supervisor Mike McKerrow to discuss noise pollution. He said the issue was raised by Ms. Taylor. Mr. McKerrow stated that noise standards were mainly found in Chapter 4 of the Eugene Code (EC) and were enforced by the Eugene Police Department (EPD). He said current requirements prohibit noise from amplified music, construction, lawn mowers and other sources during certain hours and the standards include an exemption provision and variance process, which is used primarily for large construction projects. He said that regulation of noise varied widely in other communities and standards could ban products or activities altogether, limit hours of operation or duration or establish maximum decibel limits or use a combination of those strategies. He related that research found few outright bans of mulch blowers and leaf blowers. He noted that restricting the use of mulch and leafblowers would have an impact on City operations in parks, the downtown mall and elsewhere in the community. He said that Public Works and Facilities Management had upgraded equipment and reduced noise levels from leafblowers in recent years and preliminary information on that was available to the council. He identified the special challenges associated with enforcing noise standards, including the usual limited duration of the noise, availability of staff and the inconsistent volume of the noise source. Ms. Taylor agreed with the difficulty of enforcement when the source of the noise might be gone before staff arrived, but she felt there was good cause for banning things such as leaf and mulch blowers that did bother people. She said the ban on noise between certain hours did not recognize that people's lives could be disrupted by noise at times other than those for sleeping. She said that ever since a constituent initially raised the issue she had heard similar concerns from many people. She questioned the usefulness of leaf blowers and cited the problems created when leaves ended up in storm drains or neighboring property. She did not feel it was necessary to inflict noise on people simply for the comfort or convenience of another person. She said just because a law was difficult to enforce was not a reason to abandon it. Ms. Ortiz said the issue for her represented a bigger picture because there were many things in the. community that made noise. She lived in an industrial area where residents would regard a leaf blower as a minor noise source. She commented that many noise sources could not be stopped and she would not support a ban on mulch and leaf blowers, but would support limiting the time of use. She said that leaf and mulch blowers were part of to day's culture because people had less time; they were modem conveniences that also represented businesses and jobs. MINUTES-City Council Work Session August 16, 2006 Page 1