Rezoning - beware of community noise problems

A common mission for an acoustical consultant is to anticipate and minimize noise problems for a community area in transition. Changes and resulting noise problems may be triggered by an industrial area that is rezoned by a city to encourage residential and mixed-use development or an agricultural area that is rezoned by a town to host light or heavy industry. Either way, potential noise-sensitive receptors, which are usually private residents, may be adversely affected and lodge noise complaints. A specific noise issue is many times compounded by non-acoustic factors such as traffic, smoke, smell, or visual impacts from the industrial development. This paper discusses historical calls for proper planning to address the goals of interested parties, including industry, government, and community groups, while minimizing the risk of community noise problems. In addition, this paper describes several examples where rezoning presented challenges and essentially forced industry and community developments to adopt noise control measures.