Members of the Roswell City Council approved updates to the city code concerning nuisances, specifically loud noises, during Thursday’s regular meeting.
The specific portion of the Nuisance Ordinance that focuses on noise is Section 10. And this revision, Ordinance 23-15, adds specific decibel (dB) levels, making it easier to enforce, City Attorney Hess Yntema said.
Before the councilors agreed to the code revision, Jim Collins of the Alien Motor Speedway had questions about some sections of the revision that could affect auto races on the speedway’s three-eighths-of-a-mile clay track, which is described as oval-shaped and semi-banked.
Collins said the latest revision had what he considered improvements compared with earlier iterations. He still had some specific concerns about it, however.
One was the dB level on the track straightaway, which could emit noise louder than the dB limit during races. Racers are required to have mufflers on their vehicles that keep noise to about 100 dB or so at certain distances.
For example, NASCAR mufflers reduce the sound coming from those races to about 104 to 111 dB. “A Cup Series racecar usually has a peak sound intensity of 110 dB to 115 dB,” according to buildingspeed.org, which focuses on the science, mathematics and engineering involved in NASCAR.
Councilor Edward Heldenbrand asked Collins what maximum level of sound in this ordinance would make him “feel comfortable?”
Collins replied, “112 decibels.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that noise above 70 dB over a prolonged period may start damaging one’s hearing. Loud noise above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to your ears.
There are exceptions in the ordinance for bands, athletics and other entertainment coming from schools.
Collins also wondered whether the city would consider the speedway to be a sport or…
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