[Adopted 1-18-1994 by Ord. No. 1798-94]
[Amended 11-21-1995 by Ord. No. 1846-95]
This article shall be known as the "Noise and
Disorderly Conduct Code" of Cheltenham Township.
A.
Pursuant to the Home Rule Charter and Section 1502
of the First Class Township Code,[1] for the purpose of securing and promoting the public health,
comfort, convenience, safety, welfare and the peace and quiet of Cheltenham
Township and its residents, the Board of Commissioners of the Township
of Cheltenham has determined that:
(1)
The making and creation of loud, unnecessary and unusual
noises within the limits of the Township is a condition which has
existed for some time, and the extent and volume of such noises is
increasing.
(2)
The making, creation and maintenance of loud, unnecessary
or unusual noises which are prolonged, unusual or unnatural in their
time, place or use, regardless of the intent, does affect and is a
detriment to the public health, comfort, convenience, safety, repose,
welfare or prosperity of the residents and persons within the Township.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 56502.
B.
The necessity in the public interest for the provisions
and prohibitions hereinafter contained and enacted is declared as
a matter of legislative determination and public policy, and it is
further declared that the provisions and prohibitions hereinafter
contained and enacted are in pursuance of and for the purpose of securing
and promoting the public health, comfort, convenience, safety, repose,
welfare and prosperity and the peace and quiet of the Township of
Cheltenham and its inhabitants and persons within its limits.
As used in this article, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
[Added 3-28-2018 by Ord.
No. 2365-18]
Any combustible or explosive composition or any substance or
combination of substances which is intended to produce visible or
audible effects by combustion, is suitable for use by the public,
complies with the construction, performance, composition and labeling
requirements promulgated by the Consumer Products Safety Commission
in 16 CFR (relating to commercial practices) or any successor regulation
and complies with the provisions for "Consumer Fireworks" as defined
in APA 87-1 (The American Pyrotechnics Association's Standard 87-1:
Standard for Construction and Approval for Transportation of Fireworks,
Novelties, and Theatrical Pyrotechnics, 2001 Edition, or any subsequent
edition) or any successor standard, the sale, possession and use of
which are permitted throughout the Commonwealth.
The term does not include devices such as "ground and hand-held
sparkling devices," "novelties" or "toy caps" identified in APA 87-1
or any successor standard, the sale, possession and use of which are
permitted at all times throughout the Commonwealth.
Includes but is not limited to actual or threatened enemy
attack, sabotage, extraordinary fire, flood, storm, epidemic or other
impending or actual calamity endangering or threatening to endanger
health, life or property or constituted government.
A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if, with intent
to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating
a risk thereof, he/she:
Engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent
or tumultuous behavior.
Makes excessive noise.
Uses obscene language or makes an obscene gesture.
Creates a hazardous or physically offensive
condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.
Uses consumer fireworks within Cheltenham Township between the
hours of 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., prevailing time; provided, however,
that consumer fireworks may be used within Cheltenham Township on
December 31 between 11:45 p.m. and 12:15 a.m. on January 1, prevailing
time.
[Added 3-28-2018 by Ord.
No. 2365-18]
A Fire Department vehicle, police vehicle, sheriff vehicle,
ambulance, blood-delivery vehicle, armed forces emergency vehicle,
one vehicle operated by a Coroner or Chief County Medical Examiner
and one vehicle operated by a Chief Deputy Coroner or Deputy Chief
County Medical Examiner used for answering emergency calls, or any
other vehicle designated by the State Police under Section 6106 of
the Vehicles Code,[1] or a privately owned vehicle used in answering an emergency
call when used by any of the following:
A Police Chief and Assistant Chief.
A Fire Chief, Assistant Chief and, when a fire
company has three or more fire vehicles, a Second or Third Assistant
Chief.
A Fire Police Captain and Fire Police Lieutenant.
An ambulance corps commander and assistant commander.
A River Rescue Commander and Assistant Commander.
A County Emergency Management Coordinator.
A Fire Marshal.
Work made necessary to restore property to a safe condition
following a disaster or work required to protect persons or property
from imminent exposure to danger.
Any sound which constitutes a noise disturbance.
Any properly licensed mechanical equipment such as but not
limited to passenger cars, trucks, truck trailers, semitrailers, campers,
motorcycles, minibikes, go-carts, snowmobiles, amphibious craft on
land, dune buggies or racing vehicles.
Any apparatus consisting of baffles, chambers or acoustical
absorbing materials, whose primary purpose is to transmit liquids
or gases while causing a reduction in sound emission.
Any sound which annoys, disturbs or perturbs reasonable persons
with normal sensitivities; or any sound which injures or endangers
the comfort, repose, health, hearing, peace or safety of other persons.
Any not-for-profit use, religious, institutional or public
government activity that has no underlying profit motive attached
to its function.
Includes the singular and the plural and also means and includes
any person, owner, tenant, firm, corporation, association, club, partnership,
society or any other form of association.
Any machine or device for the amplification of the human
voice, music or any other sound. "Sound-amplifying equipment," as
used herein, shall not be construed as including standard automobile
radios when used and heard only by occupants of the vehicle in which
installed, nor warning devices on authorized emergency vehicles nor
horns or other warning devices on other vehicles and only for traffic
safety purposes.
Any licensed vehicle which has mounted thereon or attached
thereto any sound-amplifying equipment.
Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 6106.
A.
It shall be unlawful for any person to create a noise
disturbance or disorderly conduct within the borders of Cheltenham
Township.
B.
No person shall sound unnecessarily any horn or any
signaling device on any vehicle, automobile, motorcycle, motor bicycle
or other vehicle in any street or public place of the Township except
as a danger warning signal. Doing so will constitute disorderly conduct.
C.
No person shall operate any vehicle in the Township,
licensed or unlicensed, on public or private premises, whether standing
or moving, without an appropriate muffler on the exhaust system of
said vehicle in order to prevent noise disturbance or disorderly conduct.
D.
No person shall use, operate or permit to be played
any radio receiving set, musical instrument, television, phonograph,
public address system or other machine or device for producing or
reproducing sound in such a manner as to cause a noise disturbance
or disorderly conduct. The operation of any such instrument in such
a manner as to be plainly audible at a distance of 150 feet from the
noise source shall be a noise disturbance or disorderly conduct.
E.
No person shall operate or cause to be operated any
sound truck for any commercial purpose in the Township with sound-amplifying
equipment in operation.
F.
No person shall yell, shout, hoot, whistle or sing
on the public streets nor at any time or place so as to cause a noise
disturbance or disorderly conduct.
G.
No person shall keep any animal or bird which causes
excessive noise that disturbs the comfort or repose of any person
in the vicinity.
H.
The erection, including excavation, demolition, alteration,
construction or repair, of any building prior to 7:30 a.m. is prohibited
unless it involves emergency work.
I.
No person shall create any noise disturbance or disorderly
conduct on any street adjacent to any school, institution of learning,
church, hospital or any public building, while the same are in use,
which unreasonably interferes with the workings of such institution
or which results in excessive noise for pupils, churchgoers, patients
or others inside said building.
J.
No peddler, hawker or vendor shall shout or otherwise
cry his wares which results in a noise disturbance or a charge of
disorderly conduct.
K.
Loafing, loitering, lounging or congregating in such
a manner as to interfere with the free passage of the traveling public
or annoy the public by means of remarks or conduct of any improper
nature will constitute disorderly conduct.
L.
Permitting or giving one's consent to any person to
violate the terms of this article as above set forth upon their property
or elsewhere will constitute disorderly conduct.
A.
No person shall use or cause to be used any sound
truck with its sound-amplifying equipment in operation for any noncommercial
purpose in the Township of Cheltenham until such person shall have
filed with the Township Manager, in duplicate, a statement containing
the following information:
(1)
The name and residence of the person making the statement.
(2)
The address of place of business of the person making
the statement.
(3)
The license number and motor number of the sound truck
to be used by the person making the statement.
(4)
The name and address of the person owning the sound
truck.
(5)
The name and address of the person having direct charge
of the sound truck.
(6)
The name and address of every person who is to use
such sound truck within the Township.
(7)
The purpose for which such sound truck is to be used.
(8)
A general statement as to the sections of the Township
in which such sound truck is proposed to be used.
(9)
The proposed hours of operation of such sound truck.
(10)
The days upon which such sound truck is proposed
to be operated within the Township.
(11)
A general description of the sound-amplifying
equipment to be used.
(12)
The maximum sound-producing power from the sound
truck, including the approximate maximum distance that the sound will
be displayed.
B.
The operation of a sound truck requires a permit.
Each permit shall be valid for a maximum ten-day period. Upon receipt
of the permit fee, to be set forth from time to time by resolution
of the Board of Commissioners,[1] the Township Manager shall return to the person making
the statement one copy of such statement with the Manager's permission
for the requested operation endorsed thereon, and the copy shall be
duly certified by the Township Manager as a correct copy thereof.
Such certified copy of such statement shall be in the possession of
any person operating the sound truck at all times while the sound-amplifying
equipment of such truck is in operation within the Township, and such
copy shall be promptly displayed to a Township police officer upon
request.
[Amended 11-21-1995 by Ord. No. 1846-95; 3-15-2005 by Ord. No. 2079-05; 6-27-2006 by Ord. No. 2109-06]
Noncommercial use of sound trucks in the Township
of Cheltenham with sound-amplifying equipment in operation shall be
strictly in accordance with the following regulations:
A.
The only sounds to be permitted shall be music and
human speech.
B.
Operation shall be prohibited on Sunday and upon any
other day of the week before 9:00 a.m. and after 5:00 p.m.
C.
Sound-amplifying equipment shall not be operated unless
the sound truck upon which such equipment is mounted is operated at
a speed of at least 10 miles per hour, except that when said truck
is stopped by traffic, said sound-amplifying equipment shall not be
operated for longer than one minute at such stop.
D.
Sound-amplifying equipment shall not be operated within
300 feet of any hospital or school.
E.
The human speech and the music amplified through such
sound-amplifying device shall not be profane, lewd or indecent.
F.
The volume of sound shall be controlled so that it
will not be audible for a distance in excess of 100 yards from the
sound truck and so that the volume is not unreasonably loud, raucous,
jarring, disturbing or a nuisance to persons within the area of audibility.
A.
Noise caused in the performance of emergency work
for the immediate safety, health or welfare of the community or persons
of the community or to restore property to a safe condition following
a disaster shall not be subject to the provisions of this article.
The use of stationary emergency signaling devices shall be for emergency
use only.
B.
The Township Manager may grant specific and temporary
exceptions to the provisions of this article upon receipt of a written
application requesting such exception. The application shall state
the nature of the violation and the reason for the request. No exceptions
shall be granted for a period exceeding one year from the date of
the request. Any person affected by any noise source for which an
application for exception has been filed may also submit information
to the Commissioners in favor of or in opposition to the proposed
exception.
It shall be the duty of the Township Police
Department to enforce the provisions of this article, and they are
hereby given the power and authority to do so.
[Amended 11-21-1995 by Ord. No. 1846-95; 9-21-2022 by Ord. No. 2445-22]
Any person, association, club, society, firm, partnership, company,
corporation or body politic violating any of the provisions of this
article shall, upon conviction before any Magisterial District Justice,
be guilty of a summary offense and shall be required to pay a fine
not exceeding $1,000 and costs of prosecution, including reasonable
attorneys' fees. Each and every day on which any person, association,
club, society, firm, partnership, company, corporation or body politic
shall be in violation of this article shall constitute a separate
offense.
