The Village of Northport unanimously approved a nuisance ordinance, the first of its kind for the municipality, at its regular meeting on Sept. 12. The adopted ordinance is one that was already in effect in Leelanau Township, Northport Village Manager Jim Dyer said in his monthly report, but includes additional language to the noise portion “to create some objective standards for enforcement of a violation.”
Some of those noise violation requirements include that the noise persist for at least 15 minutes, be audible in an enclosed structure with the windows up, and that it occurs between the hours of midnight and 7 a.m. in the commercial district. Those who violate the ordinance will be issued a municipal civil infraction and be subject to a fine of not more than $500.
“The village had never had its own nuisance ordinance, we had always sort of relied on the county’s,” said Northport Village Council President Chris McCann. “I think that’s one thing we’re accomplishing as a village is that Northport would become a more professional village and one of those things is having our own stand alone ordinances on certain things… and I think it just gives us a little more independence, rather than, again, having to rely on another municipality’s ordinances, we have our own.”
In addition to addressing noise concerns in the village, the nuisance ordinance highlights light pollution, regulating outdoor lighting fixtures that contribute to light pollution of the night sky, including glare, light trespass, and skyglow. Any outdoor lighting fixture that is not fully shielded is considered a nuisance when the initial lamp lumens are over 600 lumens, and when the color correlated temperature of the lamp is over 3,000K. Other general nuisances outlined in the ordinance include junk, garbage, and rubbish, junk vehicles, partially dismantled vehicles, abandoned vehicles, and blighted structures.
The full Northport Village Nuisance Ordinance can be viewed online at https://villageofnorthport. net/ villagecouncil/# council-meetings.
