Rio Rancho City Council postpones vote on noise ordinance until April 11 meeting

After a lengthy discussion, the Rio Rancho Governing Body voted Thursday at City Hall to postpone a vote to update to the city’s current noise ordinance until the April 11 meeting.

The City of Vision is growing fast, which has some city leaders concerned about the growing noise and growing noise complaints that come with growth. The city currently has a very broad and vague noise ordinance that doesn’t set specific limits as to what decibel levels are too loud. The new ordinance would change that by using a decibel measuring system, setting acceptable levels for noise both day and night. The ordinance would also set different sound rules depending on the area such as residential versus commercial and mixed-use areas.

From Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2023, the Rio Rancho Police Department received 1,323 calls for service related to noise complaints, and just seven citations were issued for municipal court.

Rio Rancho Deputy City Manager Peter Wells said the current noise ordinance does not define what exactly a noise violation is. The City’s Unreasonable Noise Ordinance has elements which are subjective and undefined. Currently, any noise that annoys or disturbs someone could constitute a violation of the law, with a penalty enforced.

“It essentially boils down to, if any noise disturbs someone that can constitute a call to our police department. And then an officer’s going to have to make a judgment call with no clear data or standard threshold to decide whether or not they feel that is unreasonable and it’s annoying and disturbing,” Wells said. “So I will tell you that our language is very old. It is cookie-cutter language that a lot of communities adopted for original ordinances or charters and whatnot. But as communities get larger, and they have more issues, they have to go to a more scientific defined approach, and I think that’s where Rio Rancho is.”

Based on research and review, including an analysis of other New Mexico cities and those in other states, the proposed ordinance update establishes more objective criteria for what is and is not acceptable community noise levels and follows best practices and commonly adopted standards.

During the day, residential areas would have to keep it below 55 decibels. At night, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., they would have to keep the noise down to 50 decibels. Retail and commercial businesses are slightly higher. In the da,y they would have to keep the noise to 65 decibels, and at night it would go down to 60 decibels. Rio Rancho would spend about $12,000 on decibel meters so officers can make official noise measurements.

After an hour-plus of discussion between the city council and Mayor Gregg Hull with Wells sitting in the hot seat answering question after question on specifics of the new ordinance, the council voted to postpone the vote until April 11.

“Thank you staff for working through these issues. This is really near and dear. We’re trying to develop and make sure that the city of Rio Rancho has a balanced approach to noise complaints,” District 3 Councilor Bob Tyler said. “We want to make sure that we have protections, and we also want to make sure that our businesses can thrive within our community. And I think that’s an important balance.”

Despite the postponement of the vote, each city councilor and Hull praised Wells for his work on the ordinance and said the most important thing is to get the specific wording of the ordinance correct and fair.

Wells said the noise ordinance was an issue more than eight years ago that was abandoned until he and more than two dozen city staff members started working on the updated ordinance.

The proposed ordinance update, including background information, can be viewed by clicking here.

The city of Rio Rancho is accepting suggestions from the public on the proposed ordinance update document. Citizens can fill the form found hereby noon March 29, and their suggestions will be provided to the Governing Body for review.

“This current ordinance is so desperately wanting for definition, and I think we’ve got to come up with something,” Hull said. “I can’t say that what we’re proposing tonight is perfect or that what staff has proposed is perfect. I can’t say that it is; I can’t say that it isn’t. I do know that what we have right now isn’t working.”