The Chapel Hill Town Council considered a petition for city golf courses to stray from the town's noise ordinance in a meeting Monday.
Donald Hunter, the general manager of Chapel Hill Country Club, represented the case for Chapel Hill Country Club, Finley Golf Course and the Homeowner's Associations of Chapel Hill neighborhoods Oaks I, II and III. All three homeowner's associations voted to support the petition.
"We are here today to discuss the potential of a variance for golf courses within the city limits from the noise ordinance to do our daily chores," Hunter said.
"I am here today to represent 1,133 members of the club and 120 employees that rely on the club for their livelihood," Hunter said. "It recently came to our attention that the noise ordinance change in 2005, section 40.1, changed the noise ordinance from a decibel level to a time period for agricultural equipment, and we operate agricultural equipment on a daily basis."
Decibel levels are a unit used to measure sound intensity.
The equipment at the golf course, including blowers and green mowers which are designed with lower sound in mind, runs at a much lower decibel level than equipment that regular homeowners may use. Hunter compared a blower from Home Depot, which he said runs at around 70 decibels, to the 55-65 decibel blowers at the country club.
"We have had a noise expert, Dr. Noral Stewart, measure every single piece of equipment we have, and only one piece of equipment exceeded 65 on a regular basis," Hunter said.
The Chapel Hill Country Club was created in 1922 and moved to its current location in 1971. Since the new noise ordinance was passed in 2005, there has only been one homeowner complaint, according to the written petition.
Hunter's petition was supported and expounded on by a member of the Chapel Hill Country Club and a resident of the Oaks, Jeff Prather, who is also a retired Air Force engineer who has experience with the hazardous noise.
"I am used to responding to noise complaints, but not at 45 or 50 dB(A)," Prather said. "Air Force noise is a little higher intensity."
The dB(A) level is a filter that measures the sound level meter is less sensitive to very high and very low frequencies.
While Prather agreed that golf courses need an exception to the noise ordinance, he also stated that he found additional problems with the ordinance itself.
"I have another point with the actual standard," Prather said.
In places where houses are close together, Prather said even the air conditioner could trigger an instantaneous level of 45 decibels.
"I would ask, when could you can cut your grass if you have a limit of 50 dB(A) at the property line?" Prather said. "Even my battery-powered mower would violate the standard."
While the town council voted to consider the petition, they want to resolve the problems with the ordinance quickly by either acting promptly or simply allowing the variance, without changing the ordinance.
"Since this was, without a doubt, an unintended consequence of the ordinance, that the staff can come back to us quickly and with a constructive approach," said councilman Matt Czajkowski.
Councilwoman Maria Palmer said she supports a variance for the golf course instead of changing the noise ordinance as a whole.
"The matter is kind of urgent and very narrow," she said.
NOTABLE
The Council received the 2014 Carolina North Compliance Report and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Main Campus Development Report, which detailed the progress and future goals of construction projects at UNC and Carolina North.
QUOTABLE
"I think that the sunset idea is at best, unwise, at worst, dangerous," said Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt in response to a time limit to the rural buffer farm land around Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
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