JACKSON – Township Council members said a noise ordinance wasn’t enough to prevent people from doing construction at night or early in the morning.
Councilman Nino Borrelli spoke about the “quality of life issue that was brought to the attention of the council by residents.” It inspired a new ordinance that states “regardless of the township’s noise ordinance no construction or demolition activities shall be permitted between the hours of 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday to Friday or after 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekends.”
Borrelli said the ordinance was reasonable to both residents and commercial operators. “We understand there has to be a proper balance between both and to preserve the quality of life of the Jackson residents who we work for and who expect us to lead. I think this ordinance strikes that balance.”
Councilman Alex Sauickie also commented on the ordinance. “We want residents to know that they were being heard. It became obvious that common sense changes needed to be made around the hours in which construction should be performed around the town.
“There was a real simplistic change here and not something created by the amount of noise but by the hours in which it was permitted. I don’t think anyone in this room wants construction to occur at 2 o’clock in the morning. It is pretty common sense so we moved pretty quickly as a council to make the changes. The hours will be limited to such that construction will not occur to what is considered overnight,” Councilman Sauickie said.
During a more recent council meeting where the ordinance was passed, Councilman Sauickie repeated that the ordinance was based on “listening to the residents of the town, more importantly, driven by collective voices of residents from all parts of town who in some cases aren’t always on the same side of an issue.”
He noted he and Councilman Borrelli crafted it following the pleas of residents regarding reducing noise from construction during overnight hours. It was passed unanimously during its first and final reading and response from residents from all over town “have been extremely and overwhelmingly positive.”
“It is positive because it is a quality-of-life issue for all residents and it is common sense,” Sauickie said noting that the hours for such construction are now regulated to prohibit such work to occur overnight when residents are sleeping.
