To the editor:

Are you concerned about the growing amount of noise in Langley? Come to the city council meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17 and express your views and ideas.

There are several merchants who play amplified or loud electronic music outdoors throughout the day and evening, weekdays and weekends for months. There is repetitive industrial-metal noise in the evening from the current renters of the Old Fire House.

The city parks department schedules amplified music in the park at Second and Anthes, the Whidbey Island Arts Council supports amplified music at the “Concerts in the Lane” venue. Neighbors can play music repetitively and frequently without volume regulation. The ongoing noise has affected people using the library, other merchants and residents in Langley proper. Other cities keep loud music at parks which are distanced from residences.

Langley Municipal Code 18.24.020 states: “Noise emanating from any use shall be muffled so as to not become objectionable due to intermittent beat, frequency or shrillness, and where use is within or adjoins a residential district.

The sound measured at the lot line shall not exceed 50 decibels between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and 70 decibels at other hours. (Ord. 527, 1989).”

Yet Langley does not own a decibel meter to monitor the decibel levels.

Is it time for Langley to purchase a meter? What decibel levels are acceptable?

There is a common-law case precedent for what is called a covenant of quiet enjoyment.

Debbie Zick and Sandra Boden

Langley