Isle of Wight County supervisors voted unanimously on June 5 to adopt a slate of changes to the county’s noise ordinance, replacing provision county staff say were unenforceable.

The prior language had prohibited noise from audio equipment or gatherings of 10 or more people between 12:01 a.m. and 7 a.m. that is “plainly audible” from a neighbor’s home at 50 or more feet from the generating device, though deputies don’t carry equipment to measure the 50-foot distances when called to a noise complaint. The change strikes the 50-foot standard and instead applies a standard of “plainly audible inside the confines of an enclosed dwelling unit of another person” to noise generated by audio equipment, landscaping or timbering, and gatherings of 10 or more people.

Per the motion by Supervisor Renee Rountree, the adopted change would apply only to the county’s development service districts. The DSDs are geographic areas where residential growth is concentrated. The Newport DSD, where most of the county’s recent noise complaints have originated, spans from the outskirts of Smithfield through much of Carrollton.

County Attorney Bobby Jones, prior to the vote, shared data from the Sheriff’s Office showing 319, or 61%, of the 521 reported noise complaints over the past three years have originated from the Newport DSD. Thirty-one, or 67%, out of 46 year-to-date noise complaints have come from the Newport DSD.

The new ordinance incudes several definitions, including “excessive noise” as “any sound which disturbs humans, or which causes or tends to cause an adverse psychological or physiological effect on humans.”

It also extends to 7 a.m. the current 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. prohibition on noise from the loading or unloading of garbage trucks. Noise coming from a motor vehicle would be deemed excessive at any time if “plainly audible within another person’s enclosed vehicle,” exempting sirens and other equipment found in public safety vehicles.

It would add prohibitions on sounding a vehicle horn on any right-of-way or public property except as a warning and on “yelling, shoutings whistling, or singing between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. that is plainly audible inside the confines of an enclosed dwelling unit of another person.”

Violation would be punishable as a Class 3 misdemeanor, which is capped at a $500 fine and does not carry jail time under state law. Sheriff’s deputies would have discretion on whether to charge someone depending on whether they turned down the offending noise, Jones said. A subsequent conviction within a year may, but isn’t required, to be punishable as a Class 2 misdemeanor, which carries a fine of up to $1,000 and/or six months in jail.