Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Monte Sereno attacks noise

Resident complained of dreams deferred

By Clarence Cromwell

All Wolfgang Dirks wanted was a little sleep. Every summer for the past four years his dreams have been interrupted by the whine of an aging air conditioner. Every year he's complained to the Monte Sereno City Council.

He finally got what he wanted July 1, when the council decided to draw up a municipal noise ordinance that will silence noisy neighbors with a ticket.

"The law sometimes is necessary to resolve things that cannot be resolved in a neighborly fashion," Dirks later said. "We have to preserve the peaceful environment in Monte Sereno."

Maybe the reason councilmembers finally took pity on Dirks was that he had a particularly unrestful summer this year. When his neighbor's air conditioner started up this season, Dirks moved to the sofa on the other side of the house, the south side, as he's done the past couple of years. Then a nearby dog started barking. By the time a neighbor to the south suddenly obtained a rather chatty peacock, Dirks had endured just about all he could stand. He fired off his fourth annual letter begging the city to pass a noise ordinance, and he again asked the council for action at its July 1 meeting.

By the time Dirks spoke at the council meeting, Monte Sereno Planner Brian Loventhal had taken care of the peacock and the barking dog. A barking-dog law made one neighbor pipe down the pooch. The peacock had to go because the birds are specifically prohibited in residential areas, Loventhal said, due to the racket they make.

"It's an annoying shrieking," Loventhal said.

Although the dog and peacock crises were handled under current codes, they helped Dirks win the council over on the noise issue. Both Mayor Jack Lucas and Councilmember Suzanne Jackson later mentioned the peacock in reviewing their decision.

"I really empathize with him," Lucas said of Dirks.

Leaf-blowers have also been a nuisance in Monte Sereno from time to time, Lucas said. Gardeners are forbidden to use them early in the morning or on Sundays, but so far, that hasn't stopped homeowners from firing up their own leaf-blowers at odd hours.

Jackson said she had an unpleasant experience with a neighbor who started to blow the leaves off her tennis court at 7:20 a.m. one day.

"Thank god she doesn't play that much tennis anymore," Jackson said.

The new ordinance would also apply to construction work.

Loventhal is still working on the ordinance, but he said it will solve most of the city's noise problems by prohibiting loud noises, regardless of their source. The law could have a daytime noise limit and a lower limit for evenings and weekends, Loventhal said. He said he'll look at the Los Gatos and Saratoga noise ordinances to decide on the hours of the noise curfew and the decibel level at which to limit the volume.

Violation of the noise ordinance would be an infraction and would earn scofflaws a ticket, much like a traffic ticket.

Loventhal added that the law will not affect most homeowners--air conditioners, he said, will be way under the limit unless they are extremely old or poorly maintained. Anyone who wants to keep an older air conditioner might have to build an enclosure to muffle the noise.

The City Council is expected to review the first draft of the proposed noise ordinance Aug. 5.

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