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Presenter says noise study underway for proposed Washington Street hotel and maintenance yard
Summary
A project representative described plans for a hotel, office and large maintenance/warehouse area on Washington Street and said an acoustical study is underway after abutters and the Board of Health raised noise concerns; a resident disputed the study scope and cited higher possible decibel levels.
A project representative outlined a proposal to develop a site on Washington Street that would include a hotel fronting the roadway, 6,000 square feet of office space, 24,000 square feet of warehouse/maintenance space and a yard for processing materials. The representative said the design places the hotel at the street and separates the main operations from Washington Street with two 20-foot driveways and a 10-foot center island.
The representative told those present the team had met with the Board of Health through the EHIR, and that the Board’s only substantive concern beyond drainage related to noise and nearby abutters. "So we proceeded to retain Kevin Atacci," the presenter said, referring to the firm they described in the transcript as a licensed sound-study expert, and added that the consultant monitored equipment on the site for roughly six hours to simulate combined operation of multiple machines.
Why it matters: nearby residents raised the possibility that noise from heavy equipment could travel farther than the study measured, especially across marshland and waterways that the resident said amplify sound toward homes. Those concerns bear on whether proposed hours and mitigation measures will adequately protect adjacent neighborhoods.
A resident asked about the project’s hours and the study’s measurement locations, saying summer hours can be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and winter hours may operate “around the clock.” The resident cited noise figures for stump grinders and commercial vehicles: "the noise level for commercial vehicles can go upwards of a 125 decibels," and said residential stump grinders register 95 to 105 decibels while large commercial stump grinders can be 110 to 115 decibels. The resident added that running such equipment over marshland and waterways could amplify those levels toward nearby houses.
The project representative said the operation is proposed to be a 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. operation, with exceptions for activities such as snow removal, and that the noise-monitoring work places microphones in several locations to account for attenuation with distance. "As I said, it takes approximately 2 weeks to collect all the data. Once the data is collected, it takes approximately 4 weeks to prepare the report," the presenter said. The representative also noted that measured decibel figures in the expert report are point-source values and that sound diminishes over distance and through intervening woods; the presenter referenced a roughly 2,200-foot distance through woods as an example of how on-site levels differ from what reaches nearby houses.
No formal vote or decision was recorded in the transcript. Next steps discussed on the record were the completion of the noise-monitoring data collection and the preparation of the consultant’s report, which the presenter estimated would follow the two-week data-collection window and four-week reporting timeline.
