[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of Yeadon 7-20-2000 by Ord. No. 1276 (Ch. 665 of the 1995 Code). Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Alarm devices — See Ch. 68.
Animals — See Ch. 80.
Carnivals — See Ch. 101.
Fireworks and firearms — See Ch. 160.
Peace and good order — See Ch. 209.
Peddling and soliciting — See Ch. 213.
Vehicles and traffic — See Ch. 285.
Zoning — See Ch. 300.
All terminology not specifically defined in this section shall be in conformity with applicable publications of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or its successor body. In addition, as used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
AMBIENT NOISE LEVEL
The sound pressure level of the all-encompassing noise associated with a given environment, usually being a composite of sounds from many sources, and/or the A-weighted sound pressure level exceeded 90% of the time/L90 based on a one-hour period.
A-WEIGHTED SOUND PRESSURE LEVEL
The sound pressure level as measured in decibels on a sound level meter using the A-weighting network. The level so read shall be designated "dB(A)" or "dBA."
CONTINUOUS NOISE
A steady, fluctuating or impact noise which exists, essentially without interruption, for one hour or more.
CYCLICALLY VARYING NOISE
A steady, fluctuating or impulsive noise which may or may not contain a pure tone and which varies in sound pressure level such that the same level is obtained repetitively at reasonably uniform intervals of time.
DECIBEL
A logarithmic (dimensionless) unit of measure often used in describing the amplitude of sound. Decibel is denoted "dB."
DEPARTMENT
Any municipal agency.
DEVICE
Any mechanism which is intended to produce or which actually produces noise when operated or handled.
EMERGENCY VEHICLE
A motor vehicle used in response to a safe condition following a public calamity or to protect persons or property from imminent danger.
EMERGENCY WORK
Work made necessary to restore property to a safe condition following a public calamity, work to restore public utilities or work required to protect persons or property from an imminent exposure to danger.
FLUCTUATING NOISE
A noise for which the sound pressure level varies more than six dB(A) during the period of observation when measured which does not equal the previously existing ambient noise level more than once during the period of observation.
MOTOR VEHICLE
Any vehicle which is propelled or drawn by mechanical equipment, including, but not limited to, passenger cars, trucks, truck trailers, semi-trailers, campers, motorcycles, minibikes, go-carts, snowmobiles, amphibious craft on land, dune buggies or racing vehicles.
MUFFLER
Any apparatus consisting of baffles or chambers of acoustical absorbing materials whose primary purpose is to transmit liquids or gases while causing a reduction in sound emission at one end.
NOISE
Any sound which is unwanted or which causes or tends to cause an adverse psychological effect on human beings.
NOISE DISTURBANCE
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 another person.
PERSON
Any individual, association, partnership or corporation, and includes any officer, employee, department, agency or instrumentality of the United States, a state or any political subdivision of a state.
PLAINLY AUDIBLE NOISE
Any noise for which the information content of that noise is unambiguously communicated to the listener, including, but not limited to, understandable spoken speech or comprehensible rhythms.
POWERED MODEL VEHICLES
Any powered vehicle, either airborne or land-borne, which is not designed to carry persons or property, including, but not limited to, model airplanes, boats, cars or rockets, and which can be propelled by mechanical means.
PROPERTY BOUNDARY
Any imaginary line at the ground surface, and its vertical extension, which line separates the real property owned by one person from that owned by another person.
PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY
Any street, avenue, boulevard, highway, alley or similar place which is owned or controlled by a public governmental entity.
PURE TONE
Any noise which can be distinctly heard as single pitch or as a set of single pitches. For the purpose of measurement, a pure tone exists when the 1/3 octave band sound pressure level of the tone exceeds the arithmetic average of the sound pressure levels of the two contiguous 1/3 octave bands by five dB for frequencies of 500 hertz and above, by eight dB for frequencies between 160 and 400 hertz and by 15 dB for frequencies less than or equal to 125 hertz.
REPETITIVE IMPULSIVE NOISE
Any noise which is composed of impulsive noises that are repeated at sufficiently slow rates such that a sound level meter set at fast meter characteristics will show changes in sound pressure level greater than two dB(A).
SOUND
A temporal and spatial oscillation in pressure or other physical quantity, in a medium with internal forces, that causes compression and rarefaction of that medium and that propagates at finite speed distance points.
SOUND LEVEL METER
An instrument, which includes a microphone, amplifier, RMS detector, integrator or time averager, output meter and weighing networks, used to measure sound pressure levels.
SOUND PRESSURE
The instantaneous difference between the actual pressure and the average or barometric pressure at a given point in space.
STATIONARY EMERGENCY SIGNALING DEVICE
Any device, excluding a device attached to a motor vehicle, used to alert persons engaged in emergency operations. These include, but are not limited to, firefighters, first-aid squad members and law enforcement officers, whether paid or volunteer.
STATIONARY NOISE SOURCE
Any device, fixed or movable, which is located or used on geographically defined real property, other than a public right-of-way.
STEADY NOISE
A sound pressure level which remains essentially constant during the period of observation, i.e., the fluctuations are too small to meet the criterion for fluctuating noise.
TIME
Prevailing time.
A. 
The Police Department and the Health Officer of the Borough shall enforce this chapter.
B. 
A violation of any of the provisions of this chapter shall be cause for a summons and complaint to be issued forthwith. However, if the noise source is not a motor vehicle moving on a public right-of-way, then, in lieu of a summons and complaint, enforcement personnel may issue a notice, in writing, which notice may be served personally or by certified mail to the last known address of the person in charge or control of the device, building or premises on which a violation exists. The notice shall state the nature of the violation and a specific time period for the correction and abatement of the violation. No person shall fail to comply with the notice so issued.
C. 
In order to implement the purpose of this chapter, the Police Department and the Health Officer may:
(1) 
Conduct, or cause to be conducted, studies, research and monitoring related to noise;
(2) 
Conduct programs of public education regarding the cause and effects of noise, but not giving specific advice for its abatement, and encourage the participation of public interest groups in related public information efforts;
(3) 
For reasonable cause, and upon presentation of proper credentials, enter any building, property, premises or place and inspect any noise source for the purpose of ascertaining compliance or noncompliance with this chapter, or have access to and require the production of books and papers pertinent to any matter under investigation;
(4) 
Require the owner or operator of any noise source to establish and maintain records and make such reports as the Borough may reasonably prescribe; and
(5) 
Require the owner or operator of any noise source to measure the noise emission therefrom in accordance with such methods and procedures and at such locations and times as the Borough may reasonably prescribe.
A. 
No person shall make or continue or cause to be made or continued any excessive or unusually loud noise, or create a noise disturbance in the Borough.
B. 
The following acts are hereby declared to be loud, disturbing or excessive noises and/or noise disturbances in violation of this chapter, but such enumeration shall not be deemed to be exclusive:
(1) 
Horns and signaling devices. The sounding of any horn or signaling device of any motor vehicle, except as a danger or warning signal or as provided in the Vehicle Code of Pennsylvania.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 101 et seq.
(2) 
Radio, television sets and similar devices.
(a) 
Operating or permitting the use or operation of any radio receiving set, musical instrument, television, phonograph, drum or other device for the production of sound in such a manner as to cause a noise disturbance; or
(b) 
Operating any such device between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. of the following day in such a manner as to be plainly audible across real property boundaries, through partitions common to two parties within a building or at a distance of 50 feet from such device when operated within a motor vehicle parked on a public right-of-way or on a public space.
(3) 
Exterior loudspeakers. Using or operating any mechanical device or loudspeaker in a fixed or movable position exterior to any building or mounted upon any aircraft or motor vehicle, such that the sound therefrom is plainly audible at or beyond the property boundary of the source or on a public right-of-way between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. of the following day.
(4) 
Animals. Owning, keeping, possessing or harboring any animal which, by frequent or habitual howling, barking, meowing, squawking or other noise, causes a noise disturbance. This subsection applies to all private or public facilities, including animal pounds, which hold or treat animals.
(5) 
Loading operations. Loading, unloading, opening or otherwise handling boxes, crates, containers, garbage cans or similar objects between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. of the following day in such a manner as to cause a noise disturbance.
(6) 
Construction noise. Operating or causing the operation of any equipment used in commercial construction, repair, alteration or demolition work on buildings, structures, streets, alleys or appurtenances thereto in any land use category between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. of the following day.
(7) 
Vehicle repairs or testing. Repairs, rebuilding, modifying or testing any motor vehicle, off-road vehicle or motorboat in or near a residential use district in such a manner as to cause a noise disturbance or a violation of this chapter.
(8) 
Places of public entertainment. Operating or permitting the operation of any loudspeaker or other source of sound in any place of public entertainment, which loudspeaker or other source of sound produces a maximum sound pressure level of 90 dB(A) at any point that is normally occupied by a human being as read with the slow response on a sound level meter, without a conspicuous and legible sign located outside such place, near the entrance, stating "WARNING: SOUND ENVIRONMENT WITHIN MAY CAUSE TEMPORARY HEARING IMPAIRMENT WHICH MAY BECOME PERMANENT WITH CONTINUED EXPOSURE."
(9) 
Powered model vehicles. Operating or permitting the operation of powered model vehicles between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. of the following day. Maximum sound pressure levels during the permitted period of operation shall conform to those set forth in § 200-4 and shall be measured at the property boundary of the source. Powered model vehicles shall not be operated on public property.
(10) 
Refuse-compacting vehicles. Operating or permitting the operation of any motor vehicle which can compact refuse and which creates, during the compacting cycle, a disturbing noise between 9:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. of the following day in any business district, shopping center district, special use district or industrial district if an establishment therein abuts within 100 feet of a residentially zoned property upon which there is a residence building.
(11) 
Bells and alarms. Sounding or permitting the sounding of any exterior burglar alarm on any building or motor vehicle, unless such burglar alarm terminates its operation within 15 minutes of its being activated.
(12) 
Stationary emergency signaling devices. Testing of only the electromechanical functioning of a stationary emergency signaling device between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. of the following day. Such testing shall occur at the same time each day that a test is performed and shall only use the minimum cycle test time.
(13) 
Power tools. Operating or permitting the operation of any powered saw, sander, drill, grinder, garden equipment or tools of like nature, used primarily for domestic purposes, outdoors in residential zones between one hour after sunset and 8:00 a.m. of the following day.
A. 
No person shall operate or permit to be operated any stationary source of noise in such a manner as to create a sound pressure level which exceeds the limits set forth for the receiving land use in the table contained in Subsection B hereof when measured at the property boundary. When a noise source can be identified and its noise can be measured in more than one land use category, the limits of the most restrictive use shall apply at the boundaries between different land use categories.
B. 
For any source of sound which emits a pure tone or impulsive sound, the maximum sound level limits set forth in the following table shall be reduced by five dB(A):
Receiving Land Use Category
Time
Sound Pressure Level Limit in dB(A)
Residence district
8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
55
Apartment district
10:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.
50
Business district
All times
60
Shopping center district
All times
60
Special use district
All times
60
Industrial district
All times
65
A. 
No person shall operate a motor vehicle on a public right-of-way at any time in such a manner that the sound pressure level emitted by such vehicle exceeds the levels set forth in the following table when measured at the property line. This section shall apply to all motor vehicles, whether publicly or privately owned, that are duly licensed.
Sound Pressure Level in dB(A)
Vehicle Class
Speed Limit 35 mph or Less
Speed Limit 35 mph or More
Federally registered interstate motor carrier
86
90
All motor vehicles with manufacturers gross vehicle rating of 10,000 pounds or more, and any combination of vehicles towed by such vehicle
92
96
Motorcycles
88
92
Any other motor vehicle and any combination of vehicles towed by such motor vehicle
82
88
B. 
For the purposes of such table, the standard measurement height shall be four feet (1.2 meters) and the standard horizontal measurement distance from the center line of the traffic lane being monitored shall be 50 feet (15 meters). Whenever it is not feasible to use 50 feet, the distance may be shortened to 25 feet (7.5 meters), in which case the values of such table shall be increased by six dBA
C. 
No person shall operate or cause to be operated any motorized vehicle off a public right-of-way in such a manner that the sound pressure level therefrom exceeds that stated in the table contained in § 200-4 when measured at the property line. Recreational motorized vehicles shall not be operated in public parks.
A. 
Noise caused in the performance of emergency work for the immediate safety, health or welfare of the community or individuals of the community, or to restore property to a safe condition following a public calamity, shall not be subject to this chapter. Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit law enforcement, ambulance, fire or other emergency personnel to make excessive noise in the performance of their duties when such noise is clearly unnecessary. The use of stationary emergency signaling devices shall be for emergency use only.
B. 
Council may grant specific and temporary exceptions to this chapter 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 exception shall be granted for a period exceeding one year from the date of the request.
C. 
Any person affected by any noise source for which an application for an exception has been filed may submit information to Council in favor of or in opposition to the proposed exception.
D. 
Notice of requests for exceptions shall be advertised in a local newspaper of general circulation, and persons residing within 200 feet of the location of the exception shall be notified of the request by certified mail.
E. 
A public hearing shall be held within 30 days of receipt of the request and a decision shall be rendered by Council within 60 days of the hearing.
The operation or maintenance of any noise source in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed to be a public nuisance and may be subject to abatement summarily by a restraining order or injunction issued by a court of competent jurisdiction or in any other manner available for the abatement of public nuisances.
A. 
Any remedy available pursuant to this chapter shall be considered separate and not exclusive of any other remedy available under this chapter.
B. 
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to impair any cause of action or legal remedy of any person for injury or damage arising from a violation of this chapter.
Whoever violates or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this chapter shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than $300 or imprisoned not more than 30 days, or both, for each offense. A separate offense shall be deemed committed each day during or on which a violation or noncompliance occurs or continues.