Bedford supervisors amended the county’s noise ordinance Monday to remove a section that the county attorney said could have been ruled unconstitutional if challenged in court.
County Attorney Carl Boggess said the removed section included a “reasonable persons” standard for determining noise that was similar to one used in the city of Virginia Beach. The state Supreme Court ruled the city’s noise ordinance was “unconstitutionally vague” earlier this year — a nightclub owner had sued the city over the matter.
County officials deleted a section prohibiting “unreasonably, loud, disturbing and unnecessary noise” that disturbs or annoys “reasonable persons.”
Boggess said Tuesday his office and the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office had been reluctant to enforce that language even before the state court’s ruling.
“It’s hard to say what that section means,” Boggess said of the former language. “We have rarely used that in the past.”
The county’s last revision to the noise ordinance was in 2004, said Boggess. He said this revision has little effect on the remaining parts of the county’s noise regulations that were already in place.
The county does not use decibel recording devices to enforce noise, Boggess said. Instead it has various “excessive” noises in its ordinance that are prohibited from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Boggess said the county had not been legally challenged because of the section’s language, but the change was still necessary.
No one spoke in favor or against the change during a pubic hearing supervisors held Monday.
Amherst Attorney Vaden Hunt informed county supervisors earlier this year that a revision to noise laws was needed be-cause the current language could be considered unconstitutional due to the Supreme Court decision. Supervisors have not yet changed current noise laws after much debate in recent months.
The Campbell County Board of Supervisors in July approved reverting back to using a sound meter rather than discre-tion in enforcing its noise laws in response to the decision.
Also Monday, Bedford supervisors amended the solid waste ordinance to add a civil fine provision for improper deposits at the county landfill and non-county residents that use county facilities. Supervisors also approved an ordinance that al-lows the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office to dispose of unclaimed property that may be acquired in the course of duties.
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