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Noise limit in question
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17/apr/2010 |
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| Noise limit in question | By: JAMES WARDEN, Special to the News
| Posted: Friday, April 16, 2010 1:55 pm
The Rice County ordinance that would limit noise levels at a proposed motor sports park may be out of compliance with state law.
That’s because the county motor sports noise limit appears to be significantly tougher than Minnesota Pollution Control Agency limits, and state law prohibits local governments from setting standards more stringent than the MPCA’s.
“It can’t be more strict,” said Anne Claflin, an MPCA noise specialist. “That comes from the statute that gave the MPCA the authority to write the rules.”
The county ordinance limits noise for organized motor sports to 50 dB(A) — equivalent to a quiet restaurant — as measured at the nearest property line.
MPCA rules have a matrix of noise ordinances based on time of day, the proportion of each hour the noise will be taking place and the type of property receiving the noise.
Lee Theis — president and chief executive of Motokazie Inc., the company wanting to build the motor sports park — is asking the county to allow organized motor sports in highway commercial zones instead of the agricultural and urban reserve zoning districts to which it is currently limited.
The MPCA’s limit for commercial zones is 70 dB(A) when that noise is sustained 10 percent of an hour and 65 dB(A) when the noise is sustained 50 percent of an hour. That volume is equivalent to busy traffic.
But the county’s motor sports noise limit would likely violate MPCA rules even if commissioners don’t agree because agricultural uses fall under the MPCA’s “Noise Area Classification-3,” which are 10 dB(A) higher than the commercial “NAC-2” limits.
Motokazie has not acquired land, but the site under consideration is bordered completely by highway commercial zones, Theis said.
MPCA noise limits for residential “NAC-1 areas” are 5 dB(A) lower than commercial areas during the day and 15 dB(A) lower during the night. These areas surround nearby lakes. Union Lake is about 4,700 feet to the northwest and Circle Lake is about 8,900 feet to the southwest.
Theis said the park’s noise would not exceed limits for any of these zones.
“Motokazie expects to comply fully with any MPCA guidelines,” he said.
Terry Swihart, a lawyer with the county attorney’s office, disagreed that the county’s ordinance is more strict than allowed. The MPCA and the county are actually using two different measurements, he said. While the county takes its measurement at the property line, the MPCA requires it to be done “at the at the point of human activity nearest the noise source,” which he interprets to mean the track.
But Claflin said sound levels are based on the properties receiving the sound, not the property generating the sound. The measurement wouldn’t be made at the source, and the actual zoning wouldn’t matter either. It’s how the land is used.
In a rural area, for example, the MPCA would skip over the property line and any fields in between the track and the home and set up a sound monitoring station at a patio, fire pit or other outdoor area where people would commonly hang out.
“There’s a lot of confusion about this,” she said, adding that it’s a niche topic.
The closest homes to the proposed Motokazie site are between 1,150 ft and 2,250 feet from the proposed tracks, according to a sound analysis. An analyst estimated that noise at these homes would range between 59 and 64 dB(A) for a bike producing 97 dB(A) measured from 50 feet away.
Motokazie limits bikes to 99 dB(A) measured at 20 inches and will begin using a 94 dB(A) limit in 2011.
This doesn’t mean communities can’t regulate sound in other ways. Claflin said communities with noises that are legal but louder than they’d like can regulate the activity instead of the noise level. One community, for example, wanted to extend nighttime limits beyond the MPCA’s 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. definition because of frustration with noisy garbage trucks. Instead, it simply limited when trash collections could take place.
“That has the effect of mitigating the noise problem, but it doesn’t interfere with the (MPCA) noise limits,” she said. |
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