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.”
