The Yonkers City Council’s Rules Committee declined to advance a revision to the city’s noise ordinance Tuesday, voting to keep the measure in committee with its key decibel limits left blank pending further negotiation.
The proposed legislation would amend Section 66-5 of the city code, the noise provision the Council substantially rewrote in 2023 to raise residential limits. Council President Lakisha Collins-Bellamy said new legislation had been drafted to restore the pre-2023 standards, but that leadership had not reached agreement on whether to revert fully to the earlier limits or set a different number.
When the draft was distributed during the meeting, it listed the daytime residential limit at the pre-2023 figure of 55 decibels. Majority Leader John Rubbo moved to strike the numbers in paragraphs C and D, citing the unresolved decibel question, and to leave the item in committee. The motion, seconded by Minority Leader Breen, passed 6-0.
The ordinance will remain in Rules as old business. The committee is scheduled to take it up again September 9, when members may move it to a subcommittee for further deliberation or place it on the full Council agenda for a vote.
(Cohn is editor of the Ledger and is also the founder of Quieter Yonkers, which has been advocating for a change to the 2023 noise ordinance. He has sued the city in an effort to obtain documents via FOIL and to void the ordinance).
