East Greenwich passes noise ordinance on town’s waterfront

November 13, 2019 5:59 pm

EAST GREENWICH, R.I. (WLNE) – The town of East Greenwich has turned down the volume on their waterfront.

The town council voted Tuesday night to pass a noise ordinance after months of debate and public hearings following complaints from residents that entertainment on the waterfront was too loud.

“A good compromise means no one’s completely happy,” said Town Council President Mark Schwager.

While Schwager calls it a compromise, businesses say the ordinance is too strict, as it lowers both the dBA, which measures noise, and the dBC, which measures bass and vibrations. The dBA was lowered from 65 to 60, and the dBC was lowered from 75 to 65.

“What this sound ordinance does is impose an almost impossible standard,” said attorney Jeffrey Gladstone.

Gladstone represents Blu on the Water, one of the waterfront businesses impacted. He said ambient noise, like people talking or cars driving by, exceeds the decibel limit.

ABC6 measured the decibel levels with one of the owners at Blu. On a clear day with no cars passing by, levels reached the high 70s.

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But the town said ambient noise is transient, and the music is the issue.

“This is one of the last great main streets and waterfront areas in Rhode Island that’s really successful. So, why you would want to impose this type of a condition, that people have been saying, ‘this is gonna really hurt business’, why would you want to do that?”

Gladstone said Blu has already made changes to comply, and were more than happy to turn the music down, but said a strict number is just too much and fears a negative impact will be greater than just at the waterfront.

“We’re hoping that the town has not done anything that will affect their business bottom line, the restaurants are concerned that it will, but hopefully not, hopefully, it’ll all work out,” said East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce Director Steve Lombardi.