Commercial Zoning Noise Code Question

Dblock55

New Member
Jurisdiction
Michigan
Hello all! This is my first post here. Im looking for some advice on a noise ordinance issues im having.
We recently moved to a new home which has an industrial park about a miles away. Before purchasing the home i went to the property on multiple occasions to scope out the noise level from the businesses. There was nothing concerning. We moved in and all was well. Recently though during the night there has been a lot of noise coming from the area at night! I used a sound meter and was reading about 58db at my bedroom window. I looked up my townships ordinances and it says residential db limit A-weighted is 50db at night. I then proceeded to reach out to the ordinance officer to file a complaint. The officer went out and inspected the situation and informed me that although they are being very loud, there is nothing that can be done because the offender is zoned as "commercial" and the ordinance for that is that they cant exceed 70db, at their property line. They are operated at and around 67db at the property line so he could not impose any fines or mandate any changes. He spoke to the owner and they said that would implement some changes on good faith which had me hopeful that they would just shift the operating hours to daylight hours. However nothing has really changed and im getting pretty frustrated with the whole situation. I was just curious if there are any avenues that I can still explore to help mend this situation?
I know there will be responses like "you should have vetted the property and noise situation better', and that totally fair. However im in this situation now so thats not going to change the fact that i fumbled that. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hello all! This is my first post here. Im looking for some advice on a noise ordinance issues im having.
We recently moved to a new home which has an industrial park about a miles away. Before purchasing the home i went to the property on multiple occasions to scope out the noise level from the businesses. There was nothing concerning. We moved in and all was well. Recently though during the night there has been a lot of noise coming from the area at night! I used a sound meter and was reading about 58db at my bedroom window. I looked up my townships ordinances and it says residential db limit A-weighted is 50db at night. I then proceeded to reach out to the ordinance officer to file a complaint. The officer went out and inspected the situation and informed me that although they are being very loud, there is nothing that can be done because the offender is zoned as "commercial" and the ordinance for that is that they cant exceed 70db, at their property line. They are operated at and around 67db at the property line so he could not impose any fines or mandate any changes. He spoke to the owner and they said that would implement some changes on good faith which had me hopeful that they would just shift the operating hours to daylight hours. However nothing has really changed and im getting pretty frustrated with the whole situation. I was just curious if there are any avenues that I can still explore to help mend this situation?
I know there will be responses like "you should have vetted the property and noise situation better', and that totally fair. However im in this situation now so thats not going to change the fact that i fumbled that. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
What kind of business is it that is making the noise?
Have you reached out to the business owner with your concerns? If so, what did they say?
 
I was just curious if there are any avenues that I can still explore to help mend this situation?

Other than Pay Guy's suggestion, no.

All of the db scales on the internet show 60db as normal conversation along with the noise of an air conditioner and electric shaver.

decibel scale at DuckDuckGo

58db should be easily tolerated, though probably just more noticeable overnight when everything else is quiet.

At that level there are no "legal" avenues for you.

You'll have to modify your own house if you want to minimize or eliminate the sound.
 
another idea might be a white noise or light music playing....my son uses a youtube station that he left on (construction right across the narrow street starting very early every morning in a downtown area)
 
Back
Top