Stricter Noise Bylaw Proposal Will Go To Town Meeting Next Spring

The Select Board is set to sponsor a revision to Nantucket’s noise bylaws that would standardize rules across the island and restrict the hours during which mechanically powered tools can be used outdoors, limiting the time when construction and landscaping activities can take place.

“I do think the consistency that is being offered would be helpful,” Select Board vice chair Matt Fee said. “I do believe it would help quite a bit.”

The current version of the new bylaws would permit construction and landscaping noise between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. from Monday through Saturday during Eastern Standard Time and between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. during Daylight Savings Time. On Sunday, one version would allow construction noise from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., while another would ban it entirely.

The Select Board signaled on Wednesday that it might be willing to adjust those hours or create carve-outs for specific activities or industries.

“This isn’t done tonight, and so we can carve out some change or do some amendments to what's proposed before we adopt it for the warrant,” Select Board member Brooke Mohr said. “That’s the whole point of this.”

A number of landscapers, contractors and other professionals pushed for earlier start times and later curfews at the Select Board’s meeting, claiming that the new noise bylaws would negatively impact their businesses by reducing the number of hours they can work.

“We utilize every hour of every day,” landscaper Matthew Palka said. “You take away a half hour, hour in the morning, and you take away two hours in the evening, that adds up pretty quick.”

“I also, in a way, take this to become a bad neighbor article,” real estate agent Carl Lindvall said. “There’s going to be, now, more calls to the police department for noise complaints and now, rather than dealing with what I would consider an actual emergency, they’re responding to noise complaints.”

The current bylaws establish a varying array of cutoffs that change depending on the time of the year, day of the week, type of noise, and zoning district, but are broadly less restrictive than the new proposal. Under the existing bylaws, there are ten different curfews, with cutoff times ranging from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. in the morning and 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at night.

Initially drafted by the Sconset Civic Association, the proposal is an effort to simplify the island’s noise restrictions, allowing for easier, more consistent enforcement and compliance, which supporters allege has been sorely lacking.

“Right now, as it stands, nobody understands what the rules and regulations are,” said Karel Greenberg, the president of the Sconset Civic Association. “The idea is to make it cohesive across the island, so it’s easier for enforcement, because right now, it’s impossible to enforce.”

The proposal is endorsed by the Nantucket Civic League.

“The current regulations are a patchwork of varying noise curfews that are both inane and impossible to enforce,” Civic League co-president Scott Wilson said. “The excellent work of Karel Greenberg and her 'Sconset team is an effort to standardize the noise regulations that will bring much-needed peace.”

The new bylaws would have to be approved by voters at next spring’s Annual Town Meeting before they can go into effect. The proposal may shift before it is finalized for the Town Meeting warrant.

The noise bylaws would not apply to all categories of outdoor noise. For instance, they would not restrict when contractors can drive their vehicles or transport equipment from place to place, nor would they apply to music from restaurants and bars. Select Board members suggested that certain categories of noise, including agricultural and golf noise, or noise generated by individuals doing work around their own homes, could be exempted from the regulations.