It is hereby declared to be the policy of this
Borough that the peace, health, safety and welfare of its citizens
require protection from excessive, unnecessary and unreasonable noises
from any and all sources in the community. It is the intention of
the Borough Council to control the adverse effect of such noise sources
on the citizens under any condition of use, especially those conditions
of use that have the most severe impact on any person.
For the purposes of this chapter, certain terms
are defined as follows:
EMERGENCIES
Essential activities necessary to restore, preserve, protect
or save lives or property from imminent danger of loss or harm.
LOCAL AMBIENT
The lowest sound level repeating itself during a six-minute period as measured with a precision sound-level meter using slow response and A-weighting. The minimum sound level shall be determined with the noise source at issue silent and in the same location as the measurement of the noise level of the source or sources at issue; however, for purposes of this chapter, in no case shall the local ambient be considered or determined to be less than 30 dBA for interior noise with respect to the requirements set forth in §
226-3B of this chapter and 40 dBA with respect to requirements set forth in all other sections. If a significant portion of the local ambient is produced by one or more individual identifiable sources that would otherwise be operating continuously during the six-minute measurement period and contributing significantly to the ambient sound level, determination of the local ambient shall be accomplished with these separate identifiable noise sources silent.
NOISE LEVEL
The maximum continuous sound level or repetitive peak level
produced by a source or group of sources as measured with a precision
sound-level meter using the A-weighting scale and the meter response
function set to slow.
PRECISION SOUND-LEVEL METER
A device for measuring sound level in decibel units within
the performance specifications in the American National Standards
Institute Standard S1.4, Specification for Sound-Level Meters.
PROPERTY PLANE
A vertical plane passing through a property line which determines
the property boundaries in space.
SOUND LEVEL
Expressed in decibels (dB), a logarithmic indication of the
ratio between the acoustic energy present at a given location and
the lowest amount of acoustic energy audible to the sensitive human
ears and weighted by frequency to account for characteristics of human
hearing, as given in the American National Standards Institute Standard
S1.1, Acoustic Terminology, Paragraph 2.9, or successor reference.
All references to "dB" in this chapter utilize the A-level weighting
scale, abbreviated "dBA," measured as set forth in this section.
VEHICLE
Any device by which any person or property may be propelled,
moved or drawn on a highway or street.
No person shall produce, suffer or allow to
be produced by any machine or device or any combination of same on
commercial or industrial property a noise level more than eight dB
above the local ambient at any point outside of the property planes.
Any person violating any of the provisions of
this chapter shall, upon conviction of each such offense, be punished
by a fine of not more than $1,000, plus costs of prosecution, and,
in default of payment of such fine and costs, by imprisonment for
not more than 30 days for each offense.