HOWELL – The Howell Township Council has adopted a new noise ordinance that is more in line with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s current model noise ordinance.
The council unanimously adopted the ordinance on Oct. 17.
The ordinance amends Howell’s municipal code and states that “excessive sound is a serious hazard to the public heath, welfare, safety and quality of life” and that “a substantial body of science and technology exists by which excessive sound may be substantially abated” and that “people have a right to, and should be assured of, an environment free from excessive sound … it is the policy of the township to prevent excessive sound that may jeopardize the health, welfare or safety of the citizens, or degrade the quality of life.”
The ordinance references scales that are used to measure sound and differentiates between the C and A weighting networks. The ordinance states that “the C weighting network is more sensitive to low frequencies than the A weighting network.”
The new law was enacted in the wake of a recent Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting during which the different ways of measuring sound were discussed.
Resident Marc Parisi lives on Castle Court, behind the Xscape movie theater on Route 9. He maintained that noise from the theater was violating Howell’s noise code. The zoning officer determined that noise from the theater was not in violation of the code and Parisi appealed that ruling to the zoning board.
Parisi attended the Oct. 17 council meeting and said, “I came here tonight to express my support for the new noise ordinance and to thank Deputy Mayor (Robert) Nicastro for his efforts to have this noise ordinance introduced.”
He described the situation his family has dealt with for more than one year.
“The theater opened in May 2016. My family and I began hearing a rumbling noise disturbance emanating from the Xtreme Xscape theater, which is their version of IMAX. The noise could be heard inside and outside our home. In the interest of being good neighbors, we contacted theater management and the owners of the GreenLeaf at Howell shopping center,” Parisi said.
According to Parisi, the managers and owners came to his property in June 2016 to assess the situation. He said those individuals assured him they would hire a noise expert to make recommendations. By August there was no reduction in noise and that is when Parisi filed a complaint with the zoning officer.
“After thousands of dollars, we returned to the (zoning) board and our noise expert testified that noise from the theater was audible inside our home and was in fact in violation of the township’s noise ordinance,” he said.
“That fact was undisputed by the attorney representing the theater and a zoning board member even stated that he visited our property with permission from the zoning board attorney to hear the noise for himself and he said he did hear the noise rumbling on our property.
“Despite all of that, the board still denied my appeal on a 4-3 vote based on a technicality between the different scales that are used to measure noise,” Parisi said, adding that his family was “shocked and disappointed” by the board’s decision.
“(The board’s decision) should have been … either there is noise or there is no noise, not how loud the noise is, because (the movie theater’s representatives) testified there would be no noise” when the application was initially considered by Howell officials, Parisi said.
Parisi said that as of Oct. 17, noise from the theater was still audible.
“Overall, we are grateful the township is taking this step to make current their noise ordinance in the interest of protecting people’s rights to an environment free from excessive noise,” he said.