Neighborhood Construction Too Loud in Yakima? Can You Make a Noise Complaint?
Sleep is for the Weak: A Guide to Surviving Early Morning Construction in Yakima
How early can construction start in Yakima County?
I asked myself this question when I was awakened by loud construction sawing this morning. It sounded as if it was coming from right outside my window. No, actually, it sounded like they were in my living room, that's how loud it was!
I groaned, wiped the sleep from my eyes, and pulled out my cell phone to check what time it was. There was daylight, and I knew that I had not overslept for work, so I figured it must be sometime after 7 a.m.
I was stunned to see the clock on my phone show me that it was only 6:20 something. I remembered that the apartment building maintenance is repaving a sidewalk near the entrance and thus, the loud construction noise.
Isn't there a noise ordinance around here? Isn't construction supposed to start after 7 in the morning? Who can I run and complain to about this? (The link to be a 'Karen' and complain about neighborhood noise is listed below.)
WHAT IS THE YAKIMA COUNTY NOISE ORDINANCE?
In Washington state, there is no statewide set time when construction noises can begin or end.
I guess each city, or county, rather, is allowed to set their own times accordingly.
That sucks for those of us who love to do a little thing called SLEEP.
According to Chapter 6.28.030 in the Public Disturbance section of the Yakima County policies, a noise ordinance can be enforced when all that loud racket "annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of others." Persons who violate a County noise ordinance can get a ticket from a sheriff and possibly a fine up up to $500.
The problem I have with this is that there is no set start and end time listed in the online county sources I researched. That's a bummer.
QUICK POLL:
If you want to make a noise complaint, fill out the form on the Yak Back website. The only types of noise complaints listed on the form include 'animal' and 'other.'
Now that I've been awake for a couple of hours and had my morning coffee, I've been re-thinking my Grouchy Gertrude morning moment.
I'm sure the construction workers wanted to get started as early as possible because they want to avoid having to work in this brutal summer heat, especially when we're expecting temps to reach over 109 degrees this week! I don't blame them one bit!
If you're in a similar early morning noisy construction situation like me, the best thing I can suggest is for us to turn up the fan level in our bedrooms to as high as it can go and try to drown out the noise!
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