Peacocks add to Woodside noise problems Peacocks add to Woodside noise problems (June 30, 2004)

By Andrea Gemmet
Almanac Staff Writer

It started with a foul-mouthed garage band's rehearsals, quickly expanded to encompass the obnoxious ruckus of construction work, and now Woodside officials are going to have to keep in mind another vexing source of sound as they struggle to draft a noise ordinance -- peacocks.

Sheriff's deputies took down eight complaints from a resident of Mountain Home Road between June 1 and 21 about aggressive peacocks that escape from a neighbor's yard, eat the landscaping and screech at all hours of the day and night. The problem has been going on for a couple of years, the resident reported, and she's afraid to go into her own yard when they are present.

The Town Council is scheduled to revisit language for an ordinance to regulate noise and noisy activities in July.

Since the last airing of the topic in March, Town Manager Susan George says she has been struggling to craft an ordinance that follows the council's directions while avoiding the many pitfalls inherent in such language that could expose the town to litigation.

"I've also wondered more than once in recent months whether we're trying fix a problem that does not necessarily exist for many town residents and whether we're going to create a problem inadvertently by adding new regulations," Ms. George told the council in her monthly report.

A majority of council members appear to be leaning toward restricting construction activities on weekends in order to bring residents relief from the many lengthy residential construction projects in town.

At the June 8 Town Council meeting, Mayor Paul Goeld said he didn't see any urgency in completing a draft of a noise ordinance, but his colleagues did not agree with that assessment.

"I've heard an enormous amount of continual outcry for one," said Councilwoman Carroll Ann Hodges.

Councilman Dave Tanner said construction noise was still a big problem in his neighborhood, Woodside Glens, and Councilwoman Deborah Gordon said she received two calls in the past week from residents complaining about raucous parties.

"They called the sheriff, but there was nothing that they could do" because the town has no noise ordinance, Ms. Gordon said.

The noise issue is tentatively scheduled to go on the agenda of the July 13 Town Council meeting, Ms. George said.

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