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Sahuarita council adopts noise ordinance amendments to align with new state law
Summary
The Town of Sahuarita adopted a code amendment to allow certain construction hours required by state law SB1182; council discussed early-morning start times and the administrative waiver process.
The Town of Sahuarita Town Council voted to adopt ordinance 20 20 five-one 184, amending town code chapter 8.3 to align local construction noise rules with recently enacted state law SB1182.
The change updates allowable construction hours to match the state requirement that general construction may begin at 5 a.m. in summer and that concrete pours may begin an hour earlier. The town consolidated stop times to 7 p.m. to simplify compliance and retained an administrative noise-waiver process for projects that need work outside the prescribed hours.
Anna, the town’s community development director, said the amendment is designed to bring local code “into compliance with the new state law.” She explained SB1182 took effect immediately after the governor signed it and that the state law distinguishes weekday and weekend hours while the town code does not. “The state law specifies that we have to allow general construction starting at 5AM in the summer and with concrete pours occurring an hour earlier than that,” Anna said. “For simplicity for our customers and staff, we just made the stop time 7PM across the board.”
Town Manager Shane told the council that whether the town adopts the ordinance or not, the state law will be in effect: “Whether you adopt this or not, it’s going to go into effect.” He also noted staff proposed adopting the ordinance by an emergency clause, which would require a supermajority (six votes) to approve; he described adopting the ordinance with an emergency clause as a housekeeping matter to align local procedure with state timing.
Several council members expressed concern about the early start time. One council member said they had previously been woken by construction beginning near 5 a.m. and opposed the earlier hour, calling 5 a.m. “far too early.” The council preserved an administrative pathway for projects to seek waivers from the standard hours.
A motion to adopt ordinance 20 20 five-one 184 carried with a recorded outcome of 6-0.
The amendment now in the town code specifies summer and winter start/stop times for general construction and concrete pours, centralizes the stop time at 7 p.m., and continues to allow administrative waivers for work outside those hours.
