Progress report—American National Standards Institute Community Noise Standard

Abstract

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Committee S12 (Noise) Working Group (WG) 41 has been developing a draft community noise standard document for over 13 years. The purpose of the document is to provide guidance to government officials, acoustical consultants, and other interested persons on how to develop a community noise ordinance or regulation, which is appropriate for the existing local circumstances. The current version of the document embodies significant revisions, based on the inputs of many stakeholders in the community noise arena, including industry, government, consulting, and the public. The document addresses issues such as public and government priorities and values, and available resources, and also provides the technical basis to manage the local sound environment. The keys to the effectiveness of the document are that it provides a menu of options for the user, discusses the trade-offs involved for decisions that must be made by government officials, and emphasizes that enforcement of a community noise ordinance is crucial to its success. Recent progress made by the Working Group in drafting this standard is reported.