The Somerville City Council’s Legislative Matters Committee will be examining a proposed amendment to the current construction noise ordinance.

By Jim Clark

At the most recent regular meeting of the Somerville City Council on Thursday, April 13, an ordinance was put forward by Council President and Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen amending Section 9-116 of the Code of Ordinances, the Noise Ordinance, by prohibiting loud and disruptive construction activities on Saturdays and evenings.

Speaking in favor of the amendment, Ewen-Campen said, “There is a lab building in construction in Ward 3, and they recently went through part of the construction that involved blasting bedrock, which is as disruptive as it sounds. And for this period, they blasted bedrock basically from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day. Every weekday, and then on Saturdays from 9:00 to whatever it is, 6:00 or 7:00 when they basically filled the entire time, they were allowed to do that with blasting bedrock. And it was really, really, really disruptive.”

Ewen-Campen went on to affirm that this was happening in a community that understands construction needs to happen, that construction is disruptive, but that this incident was extreme.

“During the course of that,” Ewen-Campen continued, “it was made apparent to me that in fact some of our neighboring communities –including most notably Boston – do not allow this sort of construction to happen on Saturdays, on weekends, and have much stricter hours on weekdays as well. That got my attention, and I reached out to our Inspectional Services Department, who were incredibly helpful, and provided me with an overview of how this sort of activity is regulated in a lot of our surrounding communities, and I have attached a table that Mr. Zaino from ISD prepared. And then they also helped me create a list of the really, really disruptive construction. Things like blasting bedrocks, things like cutting metal and concrete. And then I worked with the Solicitors Office to come up with this draft amendment that I would like to refer to Legislative Matters.”

Ewen-Campen then flagged a few issues to explain how he landed on the matter at hand. “For one thing, there will be times when this sort of work does need to happen on Saturdays, some potentially after 5:00 p.m.,” the Councilor said. “And so, the amendment has a carve-out that allows ISD or the enforcement official to, in consultation with the Ward Councilor, to grant exemptions to this.”

Ewen-Campen said he went back and forth as to whether noise itself should be used or should specific activities be regulated. “My own opinion is that the noise ordinance is quite flawed in its enforcement,” according to Ewen-Campen. “I think we all know this, and so I’ve really been convinced that it’s beneficial to call out specific activities, as just you can’t do these on Saturdays or after 5:00 p.m., as opposed to continuing to rely on this sort of flawed approach.

Ewen-Campen indicated that he had not yet gotten input from the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD) or Infrastructure and Asset Management as of his presentation of the proposal at the City Council meeting, and that he welcomes that.

With that, the Councilor asked that the proposal be sent to the Legislative Matters Committee for deliberation.

In response to the proposed amendment, Ward 5 Councilor Beatriz Gomez Mouakad stated, “I think I would recommend going with – if the ISD is OK with it and they can do it – to have a special permit. So, if someone starts working, they have proof that they have it [permission] to do it. Because there are times due to logistics, conditions, these things might have to happen on a weekend. You know, especially on a tight site. Sometimes, certain pile driving – I’m doing it right now, it’s actually not that loud, believe it or not – it depends on what you’re hitting and certain soil conditions. So, I just want to make sure we leave a little room here for error.”

Ward 2 Councilor Jefferson Thomas (“J.T.”) Scott weighed in on the issue, saying, “I very much appreciate this. My personal trauma on this was during virtual kindergarten in the pandemic, when the building less than ten feet from the bedroom windows from the house was getting jackhammering done from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day, and for that big chunk on Saturday. I am looking forward to this getting a lot of different discussion in committee, and I’m curious what committee you’re going to send this to. But I would like to ensure that it isn’t just simply an authorization by, for example, the Inspectional Services Director. Because I get calls about this when, for example, the entire skyscraper construction crew was working on a federal holiday. And it took me quite a while to figure out why that was happening.”

Scott thanked Ewen-Campen for bringing the matter to the Council’s attention and expressed his full support for the proposed amendment.

The proposed ordinance amendment was referred for recommendation by the Council’s Legislative Matters Committee.