[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Borough
of Westwood 5-14-1946 by Ord. No. 378; amended in its entirety 4-24-1979 by Ord. No.
821. Subsequent amendments noted where applicable.]
A.Â
Findings.
(1)Â
Excessive
noise is a serious hazard to the public health and welfare and is
an unfair and unreasonable and unwarranted imposition on the rights
of the residents of the Borough of Westwood to the peaceful enjoyment
of their homes.
(2)Â
Through
reasonably priced and generally accepted technical means, excessive
noise can be controlled and abated.
(3)Â
Certain
forms of noise interfering with the safe enjoyment of persons can
be eliminated entirely by the owner or occupant of the premises from
which the noise emanates without any undue interference with the rights
of the owner or occupant to enjoy his property.
(4)Â
It
is necessary in the public interest to secure to the residents of
Westwood an environment free of excessive and unreasonable noises.
B.Â
It is the
policy of the Borough of Westwood to prevent noises which may jeopardize
the health or welfare of its citizens or degrade the quality of life
within the Borough.
All terminology used in this chapter and not defined below shall
be in conformance with applicable publications of the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) or its successor body.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
A steady, fluctuating or impact noise which exists, essentially
without interruptions, for a period of one hour or more.
A steady, fluctuating or impulsive noise, which may or may
not contain a pure tone, which varies in sound-pressure level such
that the same level is obtained repetitively at reasonably uniform
intervals of time.
Any municipal agency.
Any mechanism which is intended to produce or which actually
produces noise when operated or handled.
[Amended 10-28-1986 by Ord. No. 86-11]
Any mechanism which has as its primary purpose the making
or broadcasting or amplifying of noise.
[Added 10-28-1986 by Ord. No. 86-11]
Any mechanism which produces a noise disturbance incidental
to its operation or its use in the performance of its intended function.
[Added 10-28-1986 by Ord. No. 86-11]
A motor vehicle used in response to a public calamity or
to protect persons or property from imminent danger.
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.
Continuous barking, crying or other noisemaking, without
pauses of one minute or longer, for a period of more than 20 minutes
between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., or for a period of
more than 10 minutes between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.,
on at least two occasions over a three-month period.[1]
Any vehicles which are propelled or drawn by 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 at one end.
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 device, fixed or movable, which is located or used on
geographically defined real property other than a public right-of-way.
[2]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 that
state.
Any noise for which the information content of that noise
is unambiguously communicated to the listener, such as but not limited
to understandable spoken speech or comprehensible musical rhythms.
Any powered vehicles, either airborne, waterborne or landborne,
which are designed not to carry persons or property, such as but not
limited to model airplanes, boats, cars or rockets, and which can
be propelled by mechanical means.
An imaginary line at the ground surface, which line separates
the real property owned by one person from that owned by another person
and its vertical extension.
Any street, avenue, boulevard, highway, alley or public space
which is owned and controlled by a public government entity.
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
to distant points.
Any device, excluding those attached to motor vehicles, 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.
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.
Any Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday which
is not a legal holiday.
It shall be the duty and responsibility of the Police Department
of the Borough of Westwood to enforce the provisions of this chapter.
A violation of this chapter shall be cause for the issuance
of a summons and complaint, which may be lodged against:
A.Â
Any person making a noise disturbance prohibited by this chapter.
B.Â
The owner or occupant of any property from which any such noise disturbance
is permitted to emanate.
C.Â
Any person, other than officials and agents of the Borough of Westwood,
owning or having in his custody and control any electrical or mechanical
device creating or broadcasting any said noise.
D.Â
Any person having the lawful right to stop such noise disturbance
and who fails to do so after having been requested to stop the noise
by a member of the Westwood Police Department.
In order to implement the purposes of this chapter, the Police
Department of the Borough of Westwood shall have the power to:
A.Â
Inspections. 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 the compliance or
noncompliance with any provision of this chapter or have access to,
and require the production of, books and papers pertinent to any matter
under investigation.
B.Â
Records. Require the owner or operator of any noise source to establish
and maintain records and make such reports as the Police Department
may reasonably prescribe.
C.Â
Measurements. Require the owner or operator of any noise source to
measure the noise emissions thereof in accordance with such methods
and procedures and at such locations and times as the Police Department
may reasonably prescribe.
A.Â
General
prohibitions. It shall be unlawful for any person to make, continue,
cause or permit the continuance of a noise disturbance within the
Borough of Westwood. This subsection is not intended to prohibit the
reasonable use of noisy devices, as defined herein, during reasonable
hours in connection with activities that are incidental to the reasonable
and lawful use of the property from which the noise emanates and which
noises are limited in duration. It is the intention of this chapter
to prohibit the operation of noisemaking devices in such a manner
as to create a noise disturbance at any time.
[Amended 10-28-1986 by Ord. No. 86-11]
B.Â
Specific
prohibitions. The following acts, among others, are declared to be
loud, disturbing or excessive noise in violation of this chapter,
but said enumeration shall not be deemed to be exclusive:
(2)Â
Radios, television sets, electronic amplifiers and similar noisemaking
devices.
[Amended 10-28-1986 by Ord. No. 86-11]
(a)Â
Operating or permitting the use of any noisemaking device, such
as a radio, musical instrument or tape player, in such a manner as
to cause a noise disturbance. Where noisemaking equipment is operated
in such a manner as to be plainly audible to the human ear in the
interior of an adjacent residential structure, it shall be rebuttably
presumed that the person responsible for the operation of such noisemaking
device is creating a noise disturbance.
(b)Â
Operating any noisemaking device between the hours of 10:00
p.m. and 8:00 a.m. the following day in such a manner as to be plainly
audible across any real property boundaries or through partitions
common to two parties within a building or the operation of a noisemaking
device in an automobile in such a manner as to be audible 50 feet
from such a device on a public right-of-way or in a public space shall
also be rebuttably presumed to be a noise disturbance punishable under
this chapter.[2]
(c)Â
The foregoing specific prohibitions are not exclusive, and the
operation of noisemaking devices in any other manner or at times other
than those indicated above in such a manner as to create a noise disturbance
as herein defined is also prohibited.
(3)Â
Exterior loudspeakers. Using or operating any mechanical device or
loudspeaker in a fixed or moveable position exterior to any building
or mounted upon any aircraft, motor vehicle or motor boat, 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 the hours of 10:00
p.m. and 9:00 a.m. the following day, Sundays through Thursdays, or
11:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. the following day on Fridays and Saturdays.
[Amended 3-15-2005 by Ord. No. 05-10[3]]
(4)Â
Animals.[4] Owning, keeping, possessing or harboring any animal or
animals which, by frequent or habitual howling, barking, meowing,
squawking or other noisemaking, cause a noise disturbance. The provisions
of this subsection shall also apply to all private or public facilities,
including any animal pounds, which hold or treat animals.
(5)Â
Loading operations. Loading, unloading, opening or otherwise handling
boxes, crates, containers, garbage cans or other similar objects between
the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. the following day in such a manner
as to cause a noise disturbance.
(6)Â
Construction noise. Operating or causing to be operated any equipment
used in commercial construction, repair, alteration or demolition
work on buildings, structures, streets, alleys or appurtenances thereto,
in residential or commercial land use categories, between the hours
of 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. the following day on weekdays or between
6:00 p.m. Saturday night and 8:00 a.m. Monday morning and on legal
holidays.
(7)Â
Vehicle repairs or testing: repairing, 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 violate the provisions of Subsection A.
(8)Â
Refuse-compacting vehicles. The operation or permitting the operation
of any motor vehicle which can compact refuse and which creates, during
the compacting cycle, a disturbing noise between the hours of 6:00
p.m. and 7:00 a.m. the following day in residential use districts.
(9)Â
Bells and alarms. The sounding or permitting the sounding of any
exterior burglar alarm on any building or motor vehicle, unless such
burglar alarm shall terminate its operation within 30 seconds of its
being activated. Any motor vehicle upon which a burglar alarm has
been installed shall prominently display the telephone number at which
communication may be made with the owner of such motor vehicle.
(10)Â
Operating or permitting to be operated any powered saw, sander,
drill, grinder, garden equipment or tools of like nature outdoors
in residential zones between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.
the following day.[5]
(11)Â
Blowers, fans and pumps. The use of any blower, fan, pump or
engine or motor in connection therewith, including, by way of example
and not by way of limitation, air-conditioning systems, compression
devices and pool filter systems, if such use creates loud, penetrating
or continuous noises that disturb the comfort or repose of persons
residing in the vicinity.
(12)Â
The use of any automobile, motorcycle or vehicle so out of repair,
so loaded or in such manner as to create loud or unnecessary grating,
grinding, rattling or other noise.
(13)Â
The discharge into the open air of the exhaust of any automobile,
motorcycle, steam or other engine except through a muffler or other
device which effectively prevents loud or explosive noises therefrom.
(14)Â
The operation, in a residential zone, of a noisy device, as
defined herein and not otherwise permitted by this chapter, during
the hours listed, between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. the
following day or at other times for a period in excess of three hours
in any twenty-four-hour period on more than one occasion during any
seven-day interval of time. For purposes of this subsection, a "noisy
device" shall include any machine or piece of equipment whose principal
use is for recreation, if such device creates a noise which would
be otherwise prohibited under any section of this chapter.
[Added 10-28-1986 by Ord. No. 86-11; amended 3-15-2005 by Ord. No.
05-10]
It shall not be necessary to give any person prior warning or
to make any request upon said person to cease and desist conduct which
is a violation of this chapter in order for said person to be found
guilty of a violation hereof. However, the Police Department, in its
discretion, may give such warning. When such warning has been given,
it shall be noted on the police log as to the time of the warning
and the nature of the noise. After such warning has been made to the
owner, occupant or other person having control of property from which
prohibited noises are emanating, any subsequent violations of this
chapter committed within four hours of any such warning shall be rebuttably
presumed to have been made with the knowledge of the person to whom
the warning was given.
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 the provisions of 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.
A.Â
Any person, firm or corporation who shall be found guilty of violating
any provision of this chapter shall, for each offense, be fined a
sum of not more than $500 or be imprisoned in the county jail for
a period not exceeding 90 days, or both. Each day of such violation's
continuance shall be considered as a separate offense and shall be
separately punishable.
B.Â
Any person, firm or corporation who shall be found guilty of violating
any provision of this chapter for a second time within a six-month
period shall, for each offense, be fined a sum of not less than $200
and not more than $500 or be imprisoned in the county jail for a period
not exceeding 90 days, or both.
The operation or maintenance of any noise source in violation
of any provision of this chapter shall be deemed and is declared 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.Â
Any remedy available pursuant to this chapter shall be considered
separate and not exclusive of any other remedy available hereunder.
B.Â
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to impair any cause of
action, or legal remedy therefor, of any person for injury or damage
arising from any violation of this chapter.
