Committee advances revisions to Denver noise ordinance, expands festival exemptions and alters enforcement tools

Denver’s Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee on Feb. 5 voted to forward proposed revisions to Chapter 36 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code — the city’s noise ordinance — to the full City Council after a presentation by the Department of Public Health and Environment (DPHE).

DPHE staff said the proposal updates definitions and enforcement methods that the department says are out of step with the city’s growth, while also creating new limits for recurring private- and public-property events. “We believe that these proposals are measured in our approach and we think that they strike the right balance in protecting public health while also realizing that we have a growing city that has noise producing activities,” Bridal Doyle, Noise Program Supervisor, said during the presentation.

The department identified seven major updates. Key changes include: moving the permitted start time for some waste-hauling activities from 7 a.m. to 6 a.m.; expanding a festival exemption to cover qualifying events on private property that are open to the public; raising the exemption sound level for permitted events from 80 to 85 decibels; limiting qualifying private-property events at a single location to eight per calendar year with a 30-day cooling-off period after multi-day events; changing construction enforcement outside exempted hours from Table A decibel measurements to a “plainly audible” standard enforceable with time-stamped video; clarifying that preexisting land uses set allowable noise levels for later arrivals; prohibiting the use of engine compression (jack) brakes within city limits; and…