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Town of West Hartford, CT
Hartford County
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Code
New Laws (3) Index Notes (1)
A. 
Unless another meaning is clearly indicated by the context, the words listed in this article shall have the meanings indicated in this article, and such meanings shall be used in the interpretation and enforcement of this chapter.
B. 
Where terms are not defined under the provisions of this chapter and are defined in the noise regulations of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, they shall have the same meanings ascribed to them in those regulations.
C. 
Where terms are not defined under the provisions of this chapter or under the provisions of the Connecticut noise regulations, they shall have ascribed to them their ordinarily accepted meanings or such as the context herein may imply.
The following definitions shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of this chapter:
A. 
General definitions.
ANSI
The American National Standards Institute or its successor body.
BEST PRACTICAL NOISE-CONTROL MEASURES
Noise-control devices, technology and procedures which are determined by the Director of Health to be the best practical, taking into consideration the age of the equipment and facilities involved, the process employed, capital expenditures, maintenance cost, technical feasibility and the engineering aspects of the applicable noise-control techniques in relation to the control achieved and the non-noise-control environmental impact.
CONSTRUCTION
Any and all physical activity at a site necessary or incidental to the erection, placement, demolition, assembling, altering, blasting, cleaning, repairing, installing or equipping of buildings or other structures, public or private highways, roads, premises, parks, utility lines or other property, and shall include but not be limited to land clearing, grading, excavating, filling and paving.
DAYTIME
7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., local time.
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH
The legally designated health authority of the Town of West Hartford or his/her authorized representative.
EMERGENCY
Any occurrence involving actual or imminent danger to persons or damage to property which demands immediate action.
EMERGENCY SOUND SIGNAL
An audible electronic or mechanical siren or signal device attached to an authorized emergency vehicle or within or attached to a building for the purpose of sounding an alarm relating to fire or civil preparedness. Such signal may also be attached to a pole or other structure.
EMERGENCY WORK
Work made necessary to restore property to a safe condition following a public calamity, work required to protect persons or property from an imminent exposure to danger or work by private or public utilities when restoring utility.
LAWN CARE AND MAINTENANCE EQUIPMENT
All engine- or motor-powered garden or maintenance tools intended for repetitive use in residential areas, typically capable of being used by a homeowner, and including but not limited to lawn mowers, riding tractors and snowblowers, and including equipment intended for infrequent service work in inhabited areas, typically requiring skilled operators, including but not limited to chain saws, log chippers or paving rollers.
MOTOR VEHICLE REGULATIONS
The Connecticut Motor Vehicle regulations as found in Sections 14-80a-1a through 14-80a-10a, as amended from time to time.
MOTOR VEHICLES
Defined in accordance with the current definition of "motor vehicle" in the definitional section of the Motor Vehicle Chapter of the Connecticut General Statutes, C.G.S. § 14-1, as may be amended from time to time.
[Amended 4-25-1989; 6-28-1994]
NIGHTTIME
10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., local time.
NOISE DISTRICT
A unit of land that is zoned for either residential, business or industrial purposes in accordance with Chapter 177, Zoning, of the Code of the Town of West Hartford.
NOISE SOURCE
Any individual, equipment, machine or other item or thing that creates a sound.
NOISE ZONE
An individual unit of land or a group of contiguous parcels under the same ownership as indicated by public land records and, as relates to noise emitters, includes contiguous publicly dedicated street and highway rights-of-way, railroad rights-of-way and waters of the state.
OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Act and any amendments thereto or successor regulations administered by the United States and Connecticut Departments of Labor, or successor bodies.
PERSON
Any individual, firm, partnership, association, syndicate, company, trust, corporation, municipality, agency or political or administrative subdivision of the state or other legal entity of any kind.
SAFETY AND PROTECTIVE DEVICES
Devices that are designed to be used, and are actually used, for the prevention of the exposure of any person or property to imminent danger, including but not limited to unregulated safety-relief valves, circuit breakers, protective fuses, backup alarms required by OSHA or other state or federal safety regulations, horns, whistles or other warning devices associated with pressure buildup.
SITE
The area bounded by the property line on or in which a source of noise exists.
SOUND-AMPLIFYING EQUIPMENT
Any machine or device for the amplification of the human voice, music or any other sound. Sound-amplifying equipment shall not include standard automobile radios when used and heard only by the occupants of the vehicle in which the automobile radio is installed. Sound-amplifying equipment, as used in this chapter, shall not include warning devices on authorized emergency vehicles or horns or other warning devices on any vehicle used only for traffic safety purposes.
VARIANCE
A difference between the standards which are required by this chapter and that which is permitted to exist.
B. 
Acoustic definitions.
BACKGROUND NOISE
Noise which exists at a point as a result of the combination of many distant sources, individually indistinguishable.
CONTINUOUS NOISE
Ongoing noise, the intensity of which remains at a measurable level (which may vary) without interruption over an indefinite period or a specified period of time.
DECIBEL (DB)
A unit of measurement of the sound level.
EXCESSIVE NOISE
Emitter noise zone levels from noise sources exceeding the standards set forth in Article IV of this chapter beyond the boundary of adjacent noise zones.
EXISTING NOISE SOURCE
Any noise source(s) within a given noise district, the construction of which commenced prior to the effective date of this chapter.
FREQUENCY
The number of vibrations or alterations of sound pressure per second, and is expressed in hertz.
IMPULSE NOISE
Noise of short duration (generally less than one second), especially of high intensity, abrupt onset and rapid decay and often of rapidly changing spectral composition.
INFRASONIC SOUND
Sound-pressure variations having frequencies below the audible range for humans, generally below 20 hertz; subaudible.
LN
The A-weighted sound level, dB(A), exceeded N% of the time. (For example, L90 means the A-weighted sound level exceeded 90% of the time period during which measurement was made.)
PEAK SOUND-PRESSURE LEVEL
The absolute maximum value of the instantaneous sound-pressure level occurring in a specified period of time.
SOUND
A transmission of energy through solid, liquid or gaseous media in the form of vibrations which constitute alterations in pressure or position of the particles in the medium and which, in air, evoke physiological sensations, including but not limited to an auditory response when impinging on the ear.
SOUND LEVEL
A frequency-weighted sound-pressure level, obtained by the use of metering characteristics and the weighting A, B or C, as specified in ANSI Specifications for Sound-Level Meters, S1.4-1971 or the latest revision. The unit of measurement is the decibel. The weighting employed must always be stated as dBA, dBB or dBC.
SOUND-LEVEL METER
An instrument, including a microphone, an amplifier, an output meter and frequency-weighting networks, for the measurement of sound levels.
SOUND-PRESSURE LEVEL (SPL)
Twenty times the logarithm to the base ten of the ratio of the sound pressure in question to the standard reference pressure of 0.00002 N/M2. It is expressed in decibel units.
ULTRASONIC SOUND
Sound-pressure variations having frequencies above the audible sound spectrum for humans, generally higher than 20,000 hertz; superaudible.
VIBRATION
An oscillatory motion of solid bodies of deterministic or random nature described by displacement, velocity or acceleration with respect to a given reference point.