HomeMy WebLinkAboutEmail from Chris Broer
Will Berg
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Chris Broer [CBROER@amresco.com]
Monday. May 02, 2005 10:55 AM
bergw@meridiancity.org
Written testimony for May 3, 2005 LP public hearing
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public hearing on
Louisiane Pa...
Please find attached a Word document containing my written testimony I
would like to submit for the Louisiana Pacific plant expansion public
hearing scheduled for May 3. I won't be able to attend in person, but
would still like to participate by providing my input.
Thanks,
Chris Broer
Submission for Public Hearing on the Louisiana-Pacific Corporation Business Expansion Project
Meridian City Council, May 3, 2005
My family and I have been adversely affected by the continuous noise resulting from LP's plant
expansion. We have lived in our home for 12 years. The city council approved the plant
expansion as part of a block grant using tax dollars in August, 2004, and though I feel the LP
plant management has subsequently acted in good faith to install silencers, it is now May, 2005
and the silencers are still not fully installed (though completed installation is apparently
imminent).
I would state under oath that 1 have been unable to get a good night's sleep for these many
months due to the plant's noise. I can hear the plant's noise inside my home during the night
even with all the windows and doors closed.
I can think of three major impacts on families in the area:
1. the value of the time of hundreds of people who attended various meetings on the topic of
LP's noise, times the number ofbours they spent having to follow this matter, adds up to
a significant impact on family time.
2. the diminished quality of life from having to listen to the noise all night.
3. the sizable economic loss faced by anyone living near the plant who endeavored to sell
his or her home during these past several months, as any potential buyer, upon hearing
the loudness from the inside of neighboring homes, was put off from making a bid, or
lowered their bid in response to the noise. Advising a potential buyer that the company
would be voluntarily lessening the noise at some point didn't raise any enthusiasm in
potential buyers, and anyone who sold his neighboring bome in the past six months
undoubtedly paid an economic price.
My goal is to prevent a future situation like this by
1. encouraging the Council to always consider the noise that will be generated by a given
proposed project (the city and LP admit they didn't expect this level of noise)
2. if unexpected noise results, weighing the economic and quality of life hardship placed on
neighbors at a higher standard than the right of the business they approved to operate
prior to noise limitation efforts being put into place, by for example having LP cease
operations until its noise level is compatible with what the Council expected its noise
level to be when it approved the expansion, and
3. keeping in mind that increasing the number of jobs in Meridian should not be a goal in
and of itself, and must be properly weighed against the consequences of developing those
jobs, especially when tax dollars in the form of a block grant are used.
Finally, I am at a loss to understand why the city's response to the excessive noise was not to
amend the city's noise ordinance to include businesses (although from my reading the noise
ordinance, it never says it doesn't cover businesses), or to establish a separate noise ordinance
for businesses that would cover unexpectedly excessive noises. As I understand it, the city
attorney has opined that the city's noise ordinance doesn't apply to businesses, and has said that
"a Court would not condone a system where a City approved an operation and then attempted to
sanction the same conduct that was contemplated as part of a business". I was very disappointed
to learn that the only amendment to the noise ordinance that the Council passed since the
excessive noise began was one that effectively shielded LP from prosecution. I think a
reasonable person would say that if the city didn't contemplate such conduct (excessive noise
generation), and didn't approve an operation expecting it would generate such excessive noise, it
could sanction such excessive noise conduct.
Thank you for listening,
Chris Broer
Meridian