Lexington, KY - A proposed overhaul of the city's ordinance governing sound levels was tabled until February Tuesday by the the LFUCG Council's Public Safety Committee after hearing strong objections from members of the business community including Bill Young and representatives of Smucker's and Amazon.com who said their operations could suffer serious harm if the ordinance was passed as proposed.
"Any piece of legislation that would negatively effect our ability to conduct operations in that manner would be detrimental to business to the point that we would not be able to fulfill our service to the customer on a day in and day out basis," said Chris Buzard, Sr. Operations Leader for Amazon.com's operations in Lexington.
Buzard and the bevy of other business leaders feared the proposed ordinance would restrict loading and delivery of goods to the hours between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. regardless of where in the county their business was located.
"Long term, while I won't speculate about our organization, that could mean we would have to consider actually moving or things drastic to that nature. I am not speaking for the organization in that regard, but as we look down the road, that could possibly be one of the implications," Buzard added.
As proposed, the 15-page ordinance would levy a penalty of $100 to $1,000 for a first offense and a fine not less than $200 for a second offense within a 12-month span and $500 for a third and was written in a way that councilmember Doug Martin said he didn't think he'd even be able to roll his trash out to the curb after 9 p.m..
Those fears were unfounded according to Vice Mayor Linda Gorton who said it would allow for citing those creating beyond the usual noise levels.
The city's current rules have been criticized as subjective and vague in the wording that any noise carrying over property lines is in violation. This ordinance would appoint a board of eight county residents including a professional in a field relating to noise issues and four at-large citizens, the five holding voting authority that would determine contested penalties and granting or revoking variances. The board would also seat three non-voting members consisting of a noise officer appointed by the Public Safety Commissioner, a representative of the construction or manufacturing industry, and one representative of the music industry.
The proposed noise ordinance was penned by a task force chaired by councilmembers Gorton and Tom Blues that met over the last few years to come up with an alternative to the current law.
Numerous speakers in the nearly two hour public hearing asked council to amend the ordinance to allow for an exemption for businesses conducting their business in a lawful manner on land allotted for that type of use.
"We have 22 plants around the united states and we've never had an issue about noise like this at any of our other locations... We would like to maintain our commitment here and grow this business here. It is vitally important to us that we maintain our 24/7 operation here," said Al Yeagley a vice president of Jif Peanut Butter's parent company Smucker's.
Both Yeagley and Amazon's Buzard said around the clock operations were needed for their businesses. Jif requires almost hourly shipments to it's Winchester Road factory of empty jars as the company fills nearly 1 million jars of peanut butter each day. Amazon, according to Buzard, sees 100 trucks a day enter their two facilities near Leestown road and 255 trucks as the holidays approach in November and December.
The committee also heard from north side residents whose neighborhoods are ringed by industrial areas. Many of the residents stated they appreciated companies such as Smucker's who will abate noise upon request, but cautioned that the worst violators are often not corporations but smaller businesses that are not as community minded.
click here
To view the proposed ordinance,