This story by Liberty Darr was published first by The Other Paper on August 8.

From jackhammering and construction to pickleball and hedge trimmers, some South Burlington council members want to strike a balance with noise pollution in a city that is increasingly expanding from a suburban to an urban environment.

The issues boiled over at a City Council meeting last year when construction of a new housing development in South Burlington prompted a broader review of the city’s public nuisance ordinance after residents who live near the site said near-constant hammering on the property apparently violated city code.

For months, construction crews had been using jackhammers to chip away at bedrock to build basements and water and sewer infrastructure for new homes on Long Drive.

Neighbors in the area flooded a city council meeting in October because of noise they called “incessant” and “intolerable”. The hammering continued, they said, for at least eight hours a day and had been going on during the warm months since at least 2020.

Although the jackhammering has not been present this summer, various types of noise associated with construction have continued to be a problem for residents in the area, and with more development on the way, neighbors continue to urge the city council to make changes.

“I would urge the council to try to do something specific about the construction noise before we go into construction season next,” Beth Zigmund said. “There are five lots left on the Long Drive parcel, and I don’t think anyone knows how much ledge is still there.”

Resident Lisa Angwin said even hearing the word jackhammering prompts a visceral reaction after the years she spent doing it. The lack of action, she said, ultimately sends a message that gives more rights to builders but neglects the health of city residents.

“I’m telling you, I don’t know what I’m going to do if that hammering thing starts again,” she said. “But I think as a community we will compete back. I can say that, because we can’t handle it.”

On the other hand, new South Burlington resident John Allen and his family have been trying to move into their home on Long Drive for the past three years. He said he and his family had no idea how “challenging, crazy and frustrating” trying to build a home on this property would be.

“We’re voters too, and we bought the land, there was an expectation that we could build a house, and in the middle of building this, all this came up,” he said. “We’ve kind of put regulation and regulation on top of this that has now hurt the whole community. I think we’re going to see more of this in other areas. A lot of houses were built over the years and there was noise, and now there’s a new community that’s coming in and new people come in, and the feeling we got was not very welcoming as new members of South Burlington.

In an effort to address some of the problems, City Councilmen Andrew Chalnick and Laurie Smith laid out some potential mitigation efforts the city could add to its current nuisance ordinance, including daytime decibel noise measurement standards, a phase-out of small gas engines such as leaf blowers, hedge trimmers and weeders, and reconsider the city’s performance standards in conjunction with its land use regulations and nuisance ordinance.

“We did a lot of research, and it appears that the majority of municipalities around the country have an objective decibel measure for noise, and most of our neighboring communities have an objective decibel rating standard for daytime noise,” Chalnick said. “Our ordinances already have decibel values ​​for nighttime noise, but for some reason don’t have daytime noise.”

But not all councilors agreed with that approach. Elizabeth Fitzgerald, while recognizing there could be a serious problem, has a “fundamental issue” with the role of councilors doing the work of changing regulations.

“I don’t have the expertise to develop language that you all can think of in relation to an ordinance, and I don’t think I was elected to do that. I’m not compensated as a city employee,” she said. “I think we have experts on staff that if this is a priority for the council, we should direct those experts to produce a recommendation that we can respond to.”

City restriction

To mitigate some of the problems in the short term, City Manager Jessie Baker entered into an agreement in May between the city and the builder of a residential property on Long Drive, Sunstone Builders LLC, as it pertains to chipping and hammering noise on property.

The agreement says chipping or other similar activities should not exceed a total of 24 hours over three days, limits work to Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and requires notification to landowners within 500 feet of the job site 48 hours before beginning work.

Builders must also include an offer to pay for the temporary relocation of these residents to select nearby hotels. Funds in the amount of $6,000 must be placed in escrow within 48 hours notice.

Some residents have opposed the deal, saying Baker overstepped her authority by entering into an agreement without first consulting the council.

“I think it’s a really outrageous agreement that was signed by Jessie Baker regarding one of the properties on Long Drive, which basically allows the developer to violate the nuisance ordinance,” Beth Zigmund said.

The council went into executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss ongoing and likely litigation, particularly on enforcement actions related to the nuisance ordinance.

After the meeting, Baker told The Other Paper that she will address the agreement further at the start of the Aug. 19 meeting, but one council member has already voiced her support for city leaders.

“I’m just going to say a vote of support for our City Manager Jessie Baker, who made an executive decision and the rationale that she had for it that makes sense from a tactical standpoint to protect the neighborhood,” Smith said.