Fairfax County: Deferring to Noise

New standards will wait until after the November election.

The Board of Supervisors wants to spend more time with noise.

Last Tuesday, June 23, the Board deferred action on the proposed changes to the county’s noise ordinance until Nov. 17, 2015.

“This was the subject of a lengthy discussion in our development process committee and we also had quite a bit of discussion and testimony at our public hearing,” said Chairman Sharon Bulova.

“There was substantial debate,” said Supervisor Michael Frey.

“It was agreed that we would continue to discuss it because we did have limited time,” said Frey.

The Board is scheduled to hold a workshop in September to debate noise further.

At the public hearing on May 12, more than 30 speakers testified including: Greg Budnik who discussed helicopter noise from training runs at Fort Belvoir; Mark Grove of Fairfax whose wife was recuperating from cancer treatment and had to contend with music from a supermarket across the street that had permits to play music until 11 p.m.; Keith Elgin, worship director of Vine Church in Dunn Loring, who wants to create events such as outdoor movies and concerts during the summer months; neighbors in Reston who say they can not get relief from noise of nearby dog parks; to those who take their dogs to dog parks to spare neighbors from noise.

Fairfax and other Virginia governments have to rewrite their noise ordinance as a result of a Virginia Supreme Court decision overturning the ordinance in Virginia Beach, according to county documents.

For more, see http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/zoning/noiseordinance/