The rumble, roar and back-up beeping from commercial landscaping and construction equipment — an increasingly regular part of the Island soundtrack — faces a potential Sunday ban in West Tisbury, where resident Marc Rosenbaum asked the planning board last week for relief from the daily din.
At his home on Great Plains Road, Memorial Day weekend was an ordeal of industrial noise, Mr. Rosenbaum told the board during its July 11 meeting online.
“On Saturday, one of our abutters had roofers there, so all day we were listening to music, nail guns [and a] generator,” he said.
Neighbors more than half a mile down the road told Mr. Rosenbaum they could clearly hear the backup beepers Sunday, he said.
“Of course, the owners of the properties are not there,” Mr. Rosenbaum added. “The owners are not being subjected to the noise. They’re somewhere else.”
“I would like to see us do something about this … so that people who really do [live] here and don’t work in construction can get one day of peace a week.”
Planning board members were receptive to Mr. Rosenbaum’s plea.
“I think it’s a good idea to limit construction to six days week,” Heikki Soikkeli said, adding “It’s the backup beepers that are really bothersome.”
Amy Upton suggested looking at rules on the books in Edgartown, which has a Sunday ban and daily limits on the hours heavy equipment can be operated in residential areas.
“It’s just a consideration for neighbors,” Ms. Upton said.
Matt Merry expressed some concern for landscapers, who are working seven days a week in high season.
“It’s going to impact landscapers’ work, not being able to work on Sunday,” Mr. Merry said.
Ms. Upton responded that only machine-powered work would be affected.
“Raking’s not very loud. Digging’s not very loud. Planting’s not very loud,” she said.
Martha’s Vineyard Commission staff member Bill Veno told the board that a change to the general bylaws would be easier to pass at town meeting, and more likely to be enforced, than a zoning bylaw change. Planning board members agreed to pursue the matter with town administrator Jennifer Rand when she returned from vacation.
At the same meeting, Ginny Jones raised concerns about Cinema Circus, a weekly children’s program of Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival parent nonprofit Circuit Arts, which recently entered into a long-term lease at Grange Hall with property owner the Vineyard Preservation Trust.
“All of a sudden we’ve gone from being a very quiet town at night in West Tisbury to being a very busy town at night in West Tisbury, and that was not what was anticipated,” Ms. Jones said.
But Ms. Upton voiced support for the film festival, which took place in Chilmark for nearly 20 years before moving to West Tisbury this spring.
“Because we’re not used to it … it’s coming on a little strong,” Ms. Upton said. “But in their defense, they really are a lovely group of people doing really wonderful things and I feel like we’re lucky to have them in West Tisbury.”
“Instead of feeling like they’re sort of invading our quiet little town … maybe we can just talk to them about taking it easy on us and going slow,” Ms. Upton said.
“Maybe they don’t speak West Tisbury quite yet. We can help them,” she added.
“That’s a good approach,” Ms. Jones said. “They should come and talk to us.”
