GREENFIELD — In an effort to brainstorm ways that the city can mitigate nuisance-causing noise, community members, city officials, and public health and safety leaders gathered at the John Zon Community Center for a public forum Thursday evening.
Moderated by City Council President Lora Wondolowski and Precinct 7 City Councilor Sarah Bolduc, the hearing was held to address a proposed noise ordinance that was brought forth by residents Kate Broughton and Mary Sirum of the Precinct 7 Neighbors Network, a neighborhood organization that launched after residents voiced their grievances over alleged excessive noise at events held at the Franklin County Fairgrounds on Wisdom Way.
Following a panel discussion featuring Police Chief Todd Dodge, Health Director Michael Theroux, and Community and Economic Development Director Amy Cahillane, attendees broke off to brainstorm ways to reduce noise downtown, at large events, for leaf blowing and landscaping, and between neighbors.
“We didn’t set out when we got together saying, ‘We’re going to build a town ordinance.’ That wasn’t the plan. … Early on, we were focused on the effects that some events at the fairgrounds were having on the surrounding neighborhood, especially concerning noise,” Sirum said, opening the forum. “We began to research sound and its effects on the quality of life. While doing the research on sound and noise, it soon became apparent that this was a larger issue than just within our neighborhood. Greenfield has no standard to regulate sound and noise throughout the city. Guidelines that can be applied consistently by all departments, all committees, from planning to permitting, from zoning to building, and all those in between, are needed in our city.”
When Dodge, Theroux and Cahillane took a seat at the table, Bolduc asked them two questions about noise in the city. Panelists were asked what they believe is the most pressing noise issue facing the city and what actions could be taken to mitigate noise pollution without unnecessarily burdening one department.
Dodge, when asked to describe the more significant impacts that noise has had on the city, explained that the city had seen a decrease in noise complaints last year — a statistic that he admitted could be explained by changes to the way dispatchers report them. He added that while police rarely respond to noise complaints, they mainly arise due to neighbor-to-neighbor conflicts or from loud events.
“Looking at the data, the last event that took place at the [fairgrounds], there [were] four calls relative to noise,” Dodge said. “We don’t get a lot of calls about weed whackers, lawn mowers, things of that nature. We don’t get a lot of those, very few. Every now and then, we may get a call about a loud car or motorcycle, not often. It’s most likely the events that are taking place or the fireworks.”
Theroux explained that when he first joined the Health Department in 2024, he received health-related complaints from events held at the Franklin County Fairgrounds, which were not necessarily related to noise. While some members of the public complained about fireworks, or a tree removal service that was making noise, he said most noise complaints have been directed to the police.
“I don’t get a ton of the complaints. Usually they do go to the Police Department first. Another complaint that I did get was with a business doing tree service, and it was more the times they were doing it, and it was destructive to the other community houses — that kind of leaned into [enforcement of] a special permit,” Theroux said. “Something that we need to look at, too, is being more cohesive with planning and events and licensing, just to make sure that we’re all on the same page and that we set a definite kind of enforcement structure on who’s going to take action with these regulations.”
Cahillane, on the other hand, explained that her role at the helm of the Community and Economic Development Department has her looking at noise complaints through a business perspective.
“In my department, we really don’t get any noise complaints,” Cahillane said. “Our concerns are more on the economic development side. We’re concerned about costs, permit restrictions or other regulations that might be put on our small businesses or our event producers; that might result in businesses or events leaving Greenfield or choosing other places to go, as opposed to coming to Greenfield.”
When Dodge was asked what efforts the city could take to enforce and potentially mitigate noise pollution, he explained that, in a lot of cases, there’s little the police can do to respond to noise complaints, aside from asking neighbors to keep it down.
“A lot of our complaints are also just sort of loud neighbors or loud music and it’s easy for us to shut it down. We go there, and as long as they are cooperative, they quiet down 99.9% of the time,” Dodge said. “When it’s something like an event, a larger event, it’s not as easy and it’s not likely or even reasonable, in my opinion, to assume [we can shut it down]. … We can’t help you. We’ll try to help, but we’re not inclined to go up and shut down an entire event of thousands of people on the fly.”
Theroux and Dodge both discussed the possibility of introducing a security deposit into the Board of License Commissioners’ approval process for event licenses as an incentive to comply with the permit’s rules and regulations. Theroux clarified that giving event organizers clearer guidelines for noise ahead of time would make for a more proactive noise mitigation system.
“Being preemptive in the beginning, setting conditions that you can only be open to a certain time, or the volume, if it gets too loud, is controlled by the event coordinator, not by the people on the stage. I think things like that will keep people in line, but I think these things need to be expressed in the beginning, so there’s a clear, set path. This is what you need to do,” Theroux said. “If we have their deposits, I think that gives them incentive to not break the rules.”
Cahillane, noting that she agreed with both Dodge and Theroux’s comments, said she believes the rules and regulations set forth to mitigate noise should be measurable and consistent. She explained that decibel readings, in her opinion, should be avoided as a benchmark for an ordinance, as they are not very consistent.
“Trying to address noise in the middle of a event that’s going on is unlikely to be successful. Licensing is a great place to address it. The notion of a returnable deposit, I like that a lot, because it does provide some financial incentive for an organizer to comply with, but doesn’t necessarily cost them at the end of the day if they follow it,” she said. “I struggle with measuring volume of an event. I feel like I have never seen an example where there has been a successful measuring of a decibel and everybody’s agreed on it. I feel like people are out there with dueling decibel readers and I think I would shy away from things like that.”
Shortly after the panel discussion concluded, members of the public dispersed to discuss the mitigation of various kinds of noise. Those sitting at the tables, which were labeled “Downtown,” “Neighborhood Noise,” “Outdoor Events” and “Leaf Blower,” reported back to the forum attendees to share their thoughts.
Theroux, reporting back from the landscaping and leaf blowing table, said his breakout group discussed restricting leaf blower use to certain months of the year and prohibiting landscaping on certain holidays.
Bolduc, who reported back from the downtown noise table, explained that noise downtown is part of the Commercial District’s vitality and should not be regulated too heavily, aside from maintaining strong city planning practices.
“There’s a certain amount of livability with downtown, and there needs to be a certain expectation that if you’re living downtown, there’s going to be noise. Music at 3 a.m. is not permitted, but … you have to balance that between the fact that music is literally the sound of the neighborhood happening all around you, because this is like a soundtrack of the city,” Bolduc said. “If we kill anything exciting happening, it kind of makes the city stagnant downtown and really could curb development in a way that we wouldn’t want. As far as an ordinance controlling noise downtown, it would be less effective than something like better zoning to control population density, sound mitigation, what’s allowed to be developed downtown, things like that.”
When Dodge presented findings from the neighborhood noise table, he said his group discussed loud motorcycles and cars, which are challenging for police to catch because they are moving, as well as idling trains, which he explained highlights a difference between local, state and federal laws.
The most popular table, which discussed noise mitigation at large outdoor events, reported back suggestions that the Board of License Commissioners consider more specific criteria when deciding whether to approve a special event permit, including setting parameters for music that contains low-frequency bass sounds.
Broughton said a noise ordinance would help set standards that can apply to all events.
“That’s where having the ordinance makes sense. From the licensing point of view, the agreement was that more content in the license applications is going to make a difference, because ultimately, when the board has to make a decision, if there’s not that much criteria in the application, they are only allowed to make a decision based on what’s there,” Broughton said. “Having an ordinance, again, we feel would be of benefit.”
Using information collected from Thursday’s forum, Broughton said the Precinct 7 Neighbors Network expects to submit its proposed ordinance to the city in April.