St. Joseph County Council considers updated noise ordinance
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - The St. Joseph County Council discussed a bill during the body’s final meeting of 2025 on Tuesday evening that would rewrite the county’s existing noise ordinance.
The bill’s author, Councilman Bryan Tanner, said the current noise control guidelines lack specificity and require standardization. St. Joseph County has not updated its noise ordinance this millennium.
“The current noise ordinance is pretty ambiguous in how you test, where you test, what kind of instrumentation you use and just the means and methods of measuring sound and noise in industrial areas in St. Joseph County,” Tanner said. “So, with so much attention being placed on industrial development in our community, it seemed like it was the best time to address and flesh out all of the factors that affect noise in our community.”
Tanner said he spent around 80 hours reading noise ordinances from other municipalities before consulting with the area plan commission and economic development team to write the bill. The bill standardizes noise measurement instrumentation and methodology while also considering different types of noise.
“It takes what is currently just the A-weighted range of decibel levels that are measured, which are really just the sounds that we hear, and it adds to it C-weighted decibels measured, which are the noise energy frequencies that we feel or we experience through vibration, sometimes through a windowpane,” Tanner said. “That’s the kind of noise that can often be generated by industrial development.”
Tanner moved to table the bill to ensure consistent interpretation and enforcement after receiving community feedback. Some residents believe the bill will target data centers in St. Joseph County, but Tanner said he did not author the bill specifically with data centers in mind.
“It would certainly apply to data centers, but no different than it would apply to any other industrial development,” Tanner said. “The reality of it is, whether it is a car shop, or it’s a data center, or it’s some kind of manufacturing facility, it has an industrial use that could potentially produce these kinds of sound energy waves that impact people’s lives.”
Tanner said he will work with the chamber of commerce to address any holes and ambiguities in the bill. He will then present it to the county council at its next meeting in January.
Copyright 2025 WNDU. All rights reserved.
