The greatest city in the world may become the quietest. Or at a minimum, less noisy than it was before its new noise regulation law went into effect on July 1.

Noise is the single biggest complaint made to city officials on the NYC hotline number, "311." This first overhaul of the city's noise law in 30 years was an attempt to quiet the complainers by quieting the noise makers.

I have read all 32 pages of the new law and can tell you that this is the most specific and ambitious effort to control noise that I have seen. While some municipalities have no noise ordinances at all, many others are presented in just a few paragraphs. This new NYC law is extremely comprehensive.

Just about everything that can bother New Yorkers (talk about a low threshold!) is now expressly regulated. This includes ice cream trucks, music boom boxes, all kinds of construction equipment, garbage trucks and, of course, leaf blowers. Leaf blowers have been under attack for at least a decade in much of this country.

Ice cream trucks can still play music or ring their bells, but not while they are standing at a street corner. Because New York is so populated, ice cream vendors often can remain at one location for prolonged periods and it was common for the trucks to sound off while remaining in place. Now they need to remain silent when they are standing still.

This was actually a negotiated concession. A prior draft of the law would have said no to all ice cream truck music and bells, standing and moving.

Any one doing construction in New York must now file a formal noise mitigation plan. This will detail the amount of noise that will be generated, the hours of noise, and the means of reducing it. Construction in New York is difficult at best and I am sure that construction contractors absolutely adore this new imposition.

And its no longer just the police that can enforce the new noise law. The city department of environmental protection has overall responsibility and its employees, along with police officers and others so appointed, will have enforcement powers.

One interesting provision concerns dog barking, with 70 dollar fines if Fido keeps up his yapping. I wonder whether the City will attempt to destroy a dog if the barking doesn't stop? Stay tuned for some dramatic canine appeals.

Also, night clubs are targeted and will have to reduce their noise. How does a dance club operate quietly anyway? It almost doesn't make sense.

People frequently write letters to me about their own problems and I suspect noise complaints are the most common that I receive from around the country. I am confident that city officials from throughout the world will monitor the new noise law in New York, because towns all over seem to have noise problems to varying degrees.

Expect tons of legal challenges to the new law. And I am sure that the City will lose some of them.

But, at the end of the day, this comprehensive, 32 page approach to noise regulation is probably the only way to address this issue in a place as complex, diverse and loud as New York.

Yes, the new city noise law will itself attract a lot of noise. But in the end, I suspect it is destined to make New York more livable because it will become less noisy.

Published: July 5, 2007

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Stuart Lieberman, Esq. writes about environmental issues. He was a New Jersey Deputy Attorney General assigned to the State Department of Environmental Protection from 1986 to 1990. Currently he is a shareholder in the environmental law firm of Lieberman & Blecher, P.C., located in Princeton, New Jersey. Stuart can be reached at slieberman@liebermanblecher.com.