The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(a) “A-weighted sound level” means the sound level as measured using the “A” weighting network with a sound level meter meeting the standards set forth in ANSI S1.4-1983 or its successors. The unit of reporting is dB(A). Sounds measured with the “A” weighting network approximate the response of human hearing when measuring sounds of low to moderate intensity.
(b) “Agricultural activities” means those activities performed on farmlands in order to cultivate the soil, produce crops, or raise livestock.
(c) “ANSI” means the American National Standards Institute, which serves as the administrator and coordinator of the United States private sector voluntary standardization system. ANSI facilitates development of American National Standards (ANS’s) by establishing consensus among qualified groups. ANS’s in the fields of acoustics and sound measurement are developed by the Acoustical Society of America in order to standardize practices and equipment.
(d) “Boom box” means a colloquial term for self-contained, portable, hand-held music or sound amplification or reproduction equipment emitting sound that is audible at distances exceeding the permissible limits established within this chapter.
(e) “Boom car” means a colloquial term for a personal or commercial vehicle with music amplification or reproduction equipment emitting sound that is audible at distances exceeding the permissible limits established within this chapter.
(f) “C-weighted sound level” means the sound level as measured using the “C” weighting network with a sound level meter meeting the standards set forth in ANSI S1.4-1983 or its successors. The unit of reporting is dB(C). The “C” weighting network is more sensitive to low frequencies than is the “A” weighting network.
(g) “Commercial facility” means any premises, property or facility involving traffic in goods or furnishing of services for sale or profit including, but not limited to:
(1) Banking and other financial institutions;
(2) Dining establishments;
(3) Establishments for providing retail or wholesale services;
(4) Establishments for recreation and entertainment;
(5) Establishments providing commercial living accommodations and commercial property used for human habitation, when such is the source of the sound under investigation;
(6) Establishments, providing living accommodations which exceed six dwelling units;
(7) Office buildings;
(8) Transportation;
(9) Warehouses.
(h) “Community service facility” means any non-residential facility used to provide services to the public, including but not limited to:
(1) Club meeting halls, offices and facilities;
(2) Organization offices and facilities;
(3) Facilities for the support and practice of religion;
(4) Private and parochial schools.
(i) “Continuous sound” means any sound with a duration of more than one second, as measured with a sound level meter set to the “slow” meter response. Impulsive sounds that are rapidly repetitive and have a duration of one second or longer shall be measured as continuous airborne sound.
(j) “Construction” means any site preparation, assembly, erection, repair, alteration or similar action, including demolition of buildings or structures.
(k) “Demolition” means any dismantling, destruction or removal of buildings, structures, or roadways.
(l) “Decibel (dB)” means a relative unit for the measurement of sound pressure. It is based upon a reference pressure of 20 micropascals (zero decibels) which is the average threshold of hearing for a human with acute hearing. The decibel scale is logarithmic, and as such, an increase or decrease of 3 dB is a doubling or halving of sound pressure.
(m) “Emergency energy release device” means a device used specifically to release excess energy on a non-scheduled basis as necessary for purposes of safety and not as a part of routine process control.
(n) “Emergency work” means any work or action necessary to deliver essential public services including, but not limited to, repairing water, gas, electric, telephone, sewer facilities, or public transportation facilities, removing fallen trees on public rights-of-way, dredging navigational waterways, or abating threatening conditions.
(o) “Extraneous sound” means a sound which is relatively intense, intermittent and of short duration and is neither part of the neighborhood residual sound, nor comes from the sound source under investigation. These sources of sound are noted, but excluded from all measurements.
(p) “Frequency” means the time rate of repetition of sound waves in cycles per second, reported as Hertz (Hz). “Frequency” is sometimes colloquially referred to as “pitch.” Low frequency sounds can correspond to the bass notes in music. Low frequency sound waves travel farther and penetrate structures more efficiently than high frequency sound waves.
(q) “Impulsive sound” means either a single pressure peak or a single burst (multiple pressure peaks) that has a duration of less than one second.
(r) “Industrial facility” means any activity and its related premises, property, facilities, or equipment involving the fabrication, manufacture, or production of durable or non-durable goods.
(s) “Motor vehicle" means every vehicle propelled or drawn by power other than muscular power or power collected from overhead electric trolley wires, except motorized bicycles, road rollers, traction engines, power shovels, power cranes, and other equipment used in construction work and not designed for or employed in general highway transportation, hole-digging machinery, well-drilling machinery, ditch-digging machinery, farm machinery, trailers used to transport agricultural produce or agricultural production materials between a local place of storage or supply and the farm when drawn or towed on a street or highway at a speed of twenty-five miles per hour or less, threshing machinery, hay-baling machinery, agricultural tractors and machinery used in the production of horticultural, floricultural, agricultural, and vegetable products, and trailers designed and used exclusively to transport a boat between a place of storage and a marina, or in and around a marina, when drawn or towed on a street or highway for a distance of no more than ten miles and at a speed of twenty-five miles per hour or less. (O.R.C. 4511.01(B))
(t) “Muffler” means a properly functioning sound dissipative device or system for abating the sound of escaping gasses on equipment where such a device is part of the normal configuration of the equipment.
(u) “Multi-dwelling unit building” means any building comprising two or more dwelling units, including, but not limited to, apartments, condominiums, co-ops, multiple family houses, townhouses, and attached residences.
(v) “Multi-use property” means any distinct parcel of land that is used for more than one category of activity. Examples include, but are not limited to:
(1) A commercial, residential, industrial or public service property having boilers, incinerators, elevators, automatic garage doors, air conditioners, laundry rooms, utility provisions, or health and recreational facilities, or other similar devices or areas, either in the interior or on the exterior of the building, which may be a source of elevated sound levels at another category on the same distinct parcel of land; or
(2) A building, which is both commercial (usually on the ground floor) and residential property, located above, behind, below or adjacent.
(w) “Neighborhood residual sound level” means that measured value, which represents the summation of the sound from all of the discrete sources affecting a given site at a given time, exclusive of extraneous sounds, and those from the source under investigation. Neighborhood residual sound level is synonymous with background or ambient sound level. Neighborhood residual sounds are differentiated from extraneous sounds by the fact that the former are more steady state, although they may not be continuous.
(x) “Noise Control Officer” means a government employee who has received noise enforcement training and is currently certified in noise enforcement. The employee must be acting within his or her designated jurisdiction and must be authorized to issue a summons in order to be considered a Noise Control Officer. The provisions of this chapter that do not require the use of a sound level meter may be enforced by any certified police officer.
(y) “Noise sensitive” means a facility whose operations may be detrimentally impacted by excessive sound levels. Such facilities include but are not limited to:
(1) Schools;
(2) Houses of worship;
(3) Outpatient medical facilities.
(z) “Plainly audible” means any sound that can be detected by a person using his or her unaided hearing faculties. As an example, if the sound source under investigation is a portable or personal vehicular sound amplification or reproduction device, the detection of the rhythmic bass component of the music is sufficient to verify plainly audible sound. The Noise Control Officer need not determine the title, specific words, or the artist performing the song.
(aa) “Private right-of-way” means any street, avenue, boulevard, road, highway, sidewalk, ally or easement that is owned, leased, or controlled by a non- governmental entity.
(bb) “Public right-of-way” means any street, avenue, boulevard, road, highway, sidewalk, alley or easement that is owned, leased, or controlled by a governmental entity.
(cc) “Public service facility” means any facility and its related premises, property or equipment used to provide governmental services to the public including, but not limited to:
(1) Maintenance centers;
(2) Offices and buildings of agencies or instrumentalities of government;
(3) Schools;
(4) Waste collection centers;
(5) Waste recycling centers;
(6) Water and sewage facilities.
(dd) “Public property” means any real property or structures thereon that are owned, leased, or controlled by a governmental entity.
(ee) “Real property line” means either:
(1) The imaginary line including its vertical extension that separates one parcel of real property from another;
(2) The vertical and horizontal boundaries of a dwelling unit that is part of a multi-dwelling unit building; or
(3) On a multi-use property, the interface between the two portions of the property on which different categories of activity are being performed (e.g., if the multi-use property is a building which is residential upstairs and commercial downstairs, then the real property line would be the interface between the residential area and the commercial area).
(ff) “Residential property” means property used for human habitation including, but not limited to:
(1) Private property used for human habitation;
(2) Commercial living accommodations and commercial property used for human habitation;
(3) Recreational and entertainment property used for human habitation;
(4) Community service property used for human habitation;
(5) Hospitals or long-term care medical facilities.
(gg) “Sound level meter” means an instrument, which conforms to ANSI S1.4-1983 or its successors.
(hh) “Total sound level” means that measured level which represents the summation of the sounds from the sound source under investigation and the neighborhood residual sounds which affect a given place at a given time, exclusive of extraneous sound sources.
(ii) “Weekday” means any day that is not a federal holiday, and beginning on Monday at 7:00 a.m. and ending on the following Friday at 6:00 p.m.
(jj) “Weekends” means beginning on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and ending on the following Monday at 7:00 a.m.
(Ord. 03-089. Passed 4-14-03.)