(Seguin) — The Seguin City Council is making the city’s noise ordinance clearer for everyone to understand. The council on Tuesday approved the updated noise ordinance. It sets new limits for noise violations, and it should make enforcement easier for the Seguin Police Department.
City Attorney Mark Kennedy says the previous noise ordinance was less clear, which made it more difficult to enforce.
“One of the objectives here was to add clarity and measurability to this thing because we had a mixed definition of zoning groups where officers were getting a little confused out on the field on exactly what they should be measuring and also it really allowed for a person to have an opinion about whether there is a noise nuisance and then question whether the officer should be enforcing that or not because it was not necessarily measurable. In two locations in the ordinance, it was really just a matter of a reasonable person’s opinion that there was a nuisance and I’m not sure who is reasonable and who is not in those situations — so making it measurable, definitely gives us the ability to better enforce it and better prosecute the citations after they have happened.
To that point, one other thing is that enforcement escalates if you look at the punitive section on that, it actually escalates. It starts with something that is a lower finable amount and escalates from there. So, it gives someone to get educated about it,” said Kennedy.
The new ordinance establishes a clear set of decibels that would trigger a violation. Sounds that go above 85 decibels from 8 a.m. 10 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays and from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Overnight, that level would drop to 75 decibels, which would run from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. Sundays to Thursdays. The lower decibel level would start being enforced at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Those decibel levels are consistent with the noise ordinance language adopted by a number of nearby cities, including New Braunfels, San Marcos and Cibolo.
Councilman Paul Gaytan questioned if more data was needed to make a decision, and should the city consider creating zones that would trigger different enforcement requirements for areas that have more entertainment venues in them. But council members Jim Lievens and Chris Rangel both said that the new ordinance allows the city to have uniform enforcement and it makes it clearer for everyone to understand.
“I respect everything you are saying. Believe me, I do. I don’t think we need the different zones. That was something that was mentioned previously as one of the things that made it a little unclear or difficult for police, I guess, to figure out what zone they are in at the time. I have a comfort level though with the fact that we are going with decibel levels that have been adopted by neighboring cities. We can do maybe more analysis even contacting those cities to see what their results have been, what are they seeing.
Has it presented any issues but if those are sort of industry established decibel levels than I can have a comfort level with that. I mean I’d be in favor of adopting this but as with anything, I would hope that if it something that seems unruly, we would have the option to amend it down the road,” said Lievens.
Rangel adds, “I agree. I think we need a baseline somewhere and then go from there. Do we need zones downtown? But I think we need to start somewhere,” said Rangel.
As part of the new ordinance, the city also made sure that officers have the tools they need to get accurate measurements of the decibel levels.
Those who violate the ordinance face a fine of up to $150 for a first offense, up to $250 for a second offense, and up to $500 for each subsequent offense.
Council members questioned if there should be a requirement that officers give a warning on a first offense. Police Chief Jason Brady says officers, under most circumstances, would always choose to give a warning first.
He says typically their first step is to contact the violator. He says a large percent of the time, those folks do comply.
“So, we are getting the compliance. Our officers, they’re not necessarily wanting to issue a citation. I mean that’s paperwork on their part. That’s basically for people that are not complying. If we have to return, sometimes the folks will be quiet if they are having a party or something and the officers show up and they’ll just wait and then the officers go around the corner and they crank it back up and that’s more the scenarios that we are going to issue citation but if a business owner or a resident is complying, and they are like all yeah, it is a little late. My neighbors are upset. They are going to tend to turn that down. There’s not instances where officers are going to be immediately going to that enforcement tool,” said Brady.
The council adopted the new ordinance on first reading. A second and final reading needs to be approved at the council’s next meeting before the ordinance can officially take effect. Council members say they want to revisit the issue in six months. They say they want to review the data on calls and enforcement under the new rules to see if they are working effectively.