Wenatchee City Council Narrowly Approves Extension of Interim Residential Noise Ordinance

The Wenatchee City Council voted to extend interim controls on outdoor amplification within residential zones Thursday night after a lengthy public hearing.

The interim controls limit outdoor amplification of sound from neighborhood centers, auditoriums, places of public assembly and churches within residential neighborhoods.

Mayor Frank Kuntz said the council has been struggling with what the right amount of noise would be, and their close 4 to 3 vote confirmed that.

"The council had to decide to let the interim control lapse, whereby the old noise ordinance would just become 'in effect'. Or do you keep the interim control, which doesn't allow outside amplification, until the planning commission has had more time to do their work and get something back to the city council?"

The city's planning commission said during the meeting that they hope to have their suggested changes to the city code within 60 days. The city's current code was interpreted by some members of the city council as too vague, and it lacks measurable standards like decibel levels.

Whatever the planning commission comes back with, the feeling from the council was that some solutions must also come from neighborhoods and the community.

"The churches and the neighbors need to sort of work together and see if they can come up with something that's reasonable in terms of either number of events, amount of noise, timing, days of the week, how many events in a year, that sort of thing," added Kuntz.

The ban extends to only start-up or one-time activities, and not events like Applesox games or events in the Apple Bowl.