Sandy Residents Raise Ruckus Over Noisy Retail Neighbors

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Grocery stores and home improvement centers do not make good neighbors, according to people who live next to Little Cottonwood Center in Sandy. Residents of this Salt Lake city suburb are organizing to demand more peace and quiet. KCPW's Julie Rose reports:

 

Pat Russell's home on Tramway Drive backs up to delivery docks at Albertsons, and the noise is driving her nuts:

"They drop big metal garbage containers from high up off the ground," says Russell. "They slam the delivery ramp from their track onto the receiving dock, with what sounds like absolutely no regard for the people who might be relaxing, thinking, studying and trying to exist behind them."

Russell and her neighbors have formed a citizens group to raise a ruckus about noise pollution. Sandy City ordinance imposes quiet time on store deliveries between nine at night and seven in the morning. But residents say that rule is violated frequently. And all day long the retaining wall between their yards and the loading docks echoes with the sound of blaring radios, idling trucks and steel scraping on concrete.

Neighbors of the new Quarry Bend development have similar concerns. The Neighborhood Peace and Quiet Coalition of Sandy is demanding better enforcement and larger fines for retailers who violate noise ordinances, says Russell:

"So that we can mitigate what already exists and somehow shine a little light on what happens when a city prefers developers over private owners and makes decisions based on tax revenue rather than residents' sanity," says Russell.

Russell says she and many of her neighbors bought homes in the area long before zoning was changed to allow noisy retail development.

Next Tuesday, the Sandy City Council will consider several recommendations to reduce noise infractions when businesses bump up against residential neighborhoods.

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