The Council gave final approval today to an amended “Noise Control Protection Amendment Act of 2008” by a vote of 9 to 4. Councilmembers Tommy Wells and Mary Cheh, authors of the original bill, voted against the measure after amendments gutted the effectiveness of the proposal.

“The final version of the bill gutted the protections for residents,” commented Wells.

The original legislation, co-introduced by Councilmembers Tommy Wells, Mary Cheh and Kwame Brown, intended to close a loophole in a 2004 law and create reasonable protections for residents within their homes from amplified noise. Unlike other major cities, the loophole resulted in DC being unable to regulate the volume and intensity of non-commercial amplified noise in the day-time.

The amendment that passed today increased the proposed threshold to consider a noise violation to 80 decibels as measured inside a home in only purely residential neighborhoods of the District. Wells said of the amendment, “The intrusion is twice as offensive -- a resident now needs wait until the sound reaches the level of a freight train indoors and then let an inspector inside their home to take a measurement.”

On 1st Reading, a compromise amendment was narrowly approved by Council that created residential protections but set higher thresholds in mixed-use neighborhoods. “I’m disappointed that some of our neighborhoods were knocked out of this bill. We had worked hard to find a fix that is fair and provides protections.”

The compromise bill that passed two weeks ago had been supported by several ANCs, civic and neighborhood associations, and some labor unions.