Turn Down The Beats, Hike The Fines?

Watch out, Long Wharf music blasters — the volume on your $10,000 car-attached speaker systems may be lowered soon, now that alders have advanced a bill that would lead to higher fines and confiscated equipment for illegally loud motor vehicles. 

That anticipated noise crackdown took center stage Tuesday night during the latest Board of Alders Legislation Committee meeting, which was held in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

The sole item on the agenda was a proposed ordinance amendment updating Secs. 18 – 71 to 18 – 90 of New Haven’s Code of Ordinances, also known as the ​“Noise Control Ordinance.”

The Legislation Committee alders voted unanimously in support of the Elicker administration-proposed changes after a handful of mostly East Shore and Hill residents spoke up about just how disruptively, deafeningly loud often out-of-state cars — and especially those that park on Long Wharf or Poplar Street to send music over the water — can be. The bill now heads to the full Board of Alders for further review and a potential final vote in August.

City Corporation Counsel Patricia King — sitting alongside Police Chief Karl Jacobson, East Shore District Manager Lt. Brian McDermott, and city-hired attorney Earle Giovanniello — explained to the committee alders that this proposed change would increase penalties for drivers of cars with large, exceptionally loud attached speaker systems. King said the bill is in line with a recently passed state law focused on allowing municipalities to do just that.

Namely, if approved by the full Board of Alders, the local ordinance amendment would allow the city to levy fines worth $1,000 for a first offense, $1,500 for a second offense, and $2,000 for all subsequent offenses against people found to be blasting car noises that can be heard at a distance of 100 feet by ​“a person of normal hearing.” 

The bill would also allow the city to seize car-attached external speaker systems that are the source of such loud noises. And it would allow the city to file a civil lawsuit in state court against offenders if they don’t pay up on the fines.

While the city officials who spoke up on Tuesday stressed that these car-blasted-music problems aren’t unique to Long Wharf … they returned to Long Wharf again and again as an epicenter of such problems.

McDermott said that drivers, some who come from as far as New Jersey or Massachusetts, like to ​“back up as close to the water as they can” so that they can turn up the volumes on car-attached speaker systems that can cost up to $10,000 apiece. ​“They create noises loud enough to rattle the windows” of homes on Woodward Avenue, Kneeland Road, Townsend Avenue, and elsewhere in the East Shore, he said. 

“They use the harbor to bounce the sound” as far Branford and East Haven. ​“It’s mind blowing,” he said. But true.

McDermott said that this is ​“not simply just a Long Wharf problem.” Police have found similar music-blasted-over-water offenders parked on Poplar Street near River Street in Fair Haven. These exceptionally loud noises not only keep neighbors up to a mile or further away up at all hours of the night, but they also inundate the city’s 911 center in noise-related calls.

So what would this proposed bill do differently?

Jacobson, McDermott and King said that, instead of using decibel meters to measure the exact level of the sounds, city cops would instead use their body cameras and apps like Google Maps to determine if car-related sounds are audible from more than 100 feet away. If so, then cops would record the level of the sound from the 100-plus foot distance, go to the source of the sound to record there, and then potentially confiscate the speaker equipment and issue a fine.

“We’re not looking to get into ticky-tack debates” about whether or not a car-issued sound is audible from 99 feet or 101 feet away, McDermott said. And ​“we’re not looking to give anybody [these tickets]” just for having a loud backyard party or for blasting music while temporarily stopped at a traffic light.

“This is clearly obvious intentional behavior by repeat offenders” who set up on Long Wharf and other waterfront areas to blast music at exceptionally loud volumes, McDermott said. That’s who this law is targeted at addressing. Jacobson estimated that there are four to eight people police are aware of who come from out of state to New Haven specifically to do that. This law would help deter them, he said, and, hopefully, others with similar loudness intentions.

The city already has a noise ordinance on the books, Board of Alders Majority Leader and Amity/Westville Alder Richard Furlow said. And that ordinance deals with all types of loud noises, not just car-issued ones. ​“Why not just enforce” the whole on-the-books ordinance and deal with all loud noises, from houses and businesses and cars alike?

This ordinance amendment came about in large part because of enabling state legislation focused on motor vehicle noises, King pointed out, and specifically car noises related to large external attached speaker systems. ​“This ordinance was not intended to affect in any way police [ability] to enforce the ordinance as it exists.”

Jacobson agreed. He said police do already — and will continue to — respond to noise complaints of all kinds. This law is a little more narrow and tailored to some of the loudest and worst offenders. ​“This is a way to roll out [a plan to] squash the bigger bugs, so to speak. … We needed to go after the biggest thing” spreading disruptively loud noises across the city, and even attracting large groups for drag racing and potentially other illegal behavior. Those worst offenders are the water-adjacent car speaker blasters, and that’s whom this law is focused on.

Westville Alder Adam Marchand pressed the city officials on both the 100-foot distance and the audibility standard of ​“normal hearing.” Why set the distance at 100 feet? And who’s to say what ​“normal hearing” constitutes? Do police body cameras accurately gauge sounds as heard by a person of ​“normal hearing?”

King said that the 100-foot distance standard comes from a similar local law already in place in Hartford. She said the state law allows municipalities to set a threshold as low as 50 feet, but New Haven wanted to follow Hartford’s lead, as their law appears to be working so far.

Jacobson also said that police officers will be trained to speak while their cameras are turned on so that the video records the sound of their voice in relation to the sound of the allegedly offending noise more than 100 feet away. That should both provide a sonic context for the noise in question and create a record for where the police officer is in relation to it.

Marchand and Downtown Alder Eli Sabin also pressed the city officials on what exactly the city law will allow police to confiscate — and on whether or not the local ordinance amendment really does comply with the enabling state law.

The way the local ordinance reads to him, Marchand said, is that it would allow city police to seize car-attached external speaker systems and tow relevantly illegally loud cars.

“We did not intend here to seize anything but the speakers,” King replied.

Jacobson jumped in: ​“If it’s 1 a.m. and we can’t take the speakers off, we’ll take the car” and then give the driver an opportunity later on to reclaim it. But, indeed, Jacobson said, city police might tow cars with relevant sound systems if those speakers can’t be easily detached.

And will these officers be trained to store and handle this seized equipment in such a way not to damage it? Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez asked.

Yes, Jacobson responded, ​“we will be training the officers on exactly what they’re supposed to do.” And the department does have indoor space for speakers and relevant cars at 710 Sherman Pkwy. for storage purposes.

King added that this law proposed by the city would only apply to cars, and not to motorcycles or dirt bikes or other loud road vehicles, because the enabling state legislation that allows for these fines and property seizures is specific to cars. 

Public: Please. Make These Car Noises Stop

During the public hearing portion of the meeting, a half-dozen Hill and East Shore residents spoke out in support of the proposed ordinance amendment — and against loud, loud, loud noises in their neighborhoods.

“You can raise the fines to $1 million, but if there’s no enforcement, it’s just a farce,” Adeline Street resident Joe Fekieta said. He described the Hill as persistently and unreasonably loud because of car noises, and pleaded with the city to do something about.

Lighthouse Road resident Gloria Bellacicco agreed. ​“This music is crazy loud,” she said. She described being woken up at 1 a.m. the other night because ​“the whole house was shaking” because of loud car music nearby. ​“Put more fines,” she said. ​“I just want to live in peace.”

“It’s extremely detrimental to the quality of life,” Townsend Avenue resident Samuel Sigg said. ​“The quality of life” in Wards 17 and 18 have taken a big hit for way too long. ​“You can’t escape it.” The low-frequency sound waves travel long distances over the water from Long Wharf to the East Shore, he said. ​“This goes on for hours and hours sometimes.”

“It’s way beyond a neighborhood disturbance,” he continued. These speaker systems can reach 130 decibels. This is a ​“jet-engine level sound. I liken it to toxic smoke.”

Fair Haven/East Rock Alder Claudia Herrera encouraged her local legislative colleagues to push the city to crack down on garages that build out these huge-speaker-systemed cars so that they can be stopped before they even hit the road. ​“How can we prevent the car from being built” and make as much noise as they do?

Kneeland Road resident Richard Buckholz then brought the conversation back to just how much these noises have impacted the lives of those living on the eastern end of the harbor. 

“Unfortunately, there are no laws against being inconsiderate to others,” he said. He said he was born and raised in New Haven, and he’s dismayed to know that his children do not want to stay in New Haven as adults — in large part because of quality of life concerns. He and his wife want to stay as long as they can. But something has to change, particularly with all the noise.

Before all of the alders voted in support of the ordinance amendment, with promises by city staff to look into a few outstanding questions, Wooster Square Alder and Legislation Committee Chair Ellen Cupo spoke from first-hand experience about just how hard it is to get two very young children back to sleep after they’ve been woken up by blaring car speakers.

The committee alders then voted unanimously in support of the bill, sending it along to the full board for further review.