After a few peaceful nights, Carmel Mountain Ranch residents were awakened by familiar construction noise.
An NBC 7 viewer complained of being woken up to the cacophonous sound of things being thrown into a nearby dumpster at the construction site. The noise continued for roughly half an hour, and no heavy equipment was used, he said.
While last week’s noisy construction turned out to be illegal, this time it appears to be simply annoying. A city spokesman said that although the overnight construction is a nuisance, it’s not necessarily breaking the rules.
In the previous incident last Thursday, the noise went on throughout the night and involved heavy equipment. A city code enforcement officer issued a formal warning to the contractor last week.
The city official said this time the noise was legal because no heavy equipment was used and it stopped within less than an hour. This time around, the NBC 7 viewer did not file a complaint with the city and he did not report it to police.
Construction crews aren’t legally permitted to make noise greater than sixty decibels for more than an hour at a time, said the city official.
However, if the Construction Crews violate the law again they could face fines and possibly be ordered to stop working on this project.
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Another city official says it’s important to make a record of the noise, even when the legality is unclear.
If you have a similar story, record video of the noise, call the non-emergency line and notify police, and file a complaint with the city code enforcement.
