St. Charles on verge of new noise laws

Beware to those who perform early morning maintenance, construction, trash pickup or business functions in St. Charles. Starting very soon, anyone who falls into that category could face a fine ranging from $50 to $500 if you don't take precautions to be extra quiet.

The city's planning and development commission passed along a new set of laws to the city council this week that contain rules for where the line between work and nuisance will be drawn in the city.

However, concerns about burdening existing businesses in town with potential fines and having to reschedule daily functions may spur dissension when the final votes are cast, especially where businesses existed before nearby homes. Some elected officials have said it doesn't seem fair to place noise constraints on such businesses because homeowners chose to move near those noise-generating businesses.

City staff and attorneys have not found a way to address that problem in the new laws. Singling out pre-existing situations may make the new noise laws indefensible in court and hard to explain when residents call to complain about why some businesses are treated differently than others.

Instead, the new law carves the city up into three categories: mixed use, residential and nonresidential. The mixed-use category basically covers the heart of the downtown. The residential category is any property outside the mixed-use area. And the nonresidential covers any property within 300 feet of a residential area that's not in the mixed-use area.

There are six types of noise the new laws seek to stifle: trash collection, construction activity, outdoor maintenance (such as lawnmowing), truck idling, commercial deliveries, amplified sounds (such as music).

So exactly what is noise? It's basically anything a police officer deems to be too noisy, or any activity that occurs during prohibited hours. For instance, there can be no lawnmowing from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. in a residential area; there can be no construction activity in the mixed-use/downtown area from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and there can be no truck deliveries to businesses that abut a residence from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

A first violation can result in a $50 fine. Each subsequent violation gets costlier all the way up to $500 for the fifth and any additional violation within a 365 day period of the first offense.

The city council is set to vote on the new noise laws at its next meeting in November.