Church noise and traffic are too much

Visitor Question: Well, it's Sunday here, I guess it's Sunday everywhere. One more time those church bells at 8:00 in the morning make me crazy. It's the only day I have to sleep a little extra after a long week at work. I am wide awake now but I can't really go anywhere for the next several minutes because the street is clogged up with cars waiting to enter the parking lot of the church that is almost across the street from me.

I talked to someone there, not the person in charge probably but somebody that is there very often. He kind of laughed and said there is nothing he could do about any of this and that I should start going there myself. I'm not interested in that, but I AM interested in trying to live my life in peace. I don't even understand how come a church was allowed to build here because we are in a residential zone as far as I know. I asked a city employee I know, and she said probably the church had the right zoning or it wouldn't be there. Is there anything I can do to regain a little quiet on the weekends?

Editors Reply: There are very few options for this situation. You are not alone in wishing a nearby church caused less commotion on what some consider to be a prime day for "sleeping in." However, in my experience, it is very likely that you won't have any recourse.

Here are a couple of ideas to explore. First, make sure that the church and its property are living within the rules of the zoning district. If you don't know the zoning of the church (and of your home), either ask the city government or increasingly, you can look up the zoning map online.

Then find out what regulations pertain to that zoning district. These might include the required building setback, and possibly some rules about where driveways may be located, how many driveways are permissible, size and placement of parking lots, and height of buildings.

Also you should find out if churches are permitted "as of right" (meaning there are no extra rules for churches compared to other permitted land uses in the zoning district), or whether a conditional use or special use is required. If there is a required conditional or special use permit, find out when the church's permit was issued and what the terms of the permit require.

If this church building has been in place for many years, you may even find that it is "grandfathered in," meaning that whatever conditions existed before the current zoning ordinance was enacted are allowed to stay in place, even if they would violate the current law.

Probably none of this talk about zoning is directly related to the problems you mention though.

Your city may have a noise ordinance, but I am willing to bet that the church bells won't exceed the permitted decibel level, if your town even has such an ordinance. Even if they do, it would be hard to convince the city government to enforce that ordinance against a church, unless the bells are rung repeatedly and are extremely loud compared to the norm for church bells.

As for the traffic, unless a conditional or special use specifically governed how the traffic flow would occur on the church's site, there is probably nothing you can do.

Now you are left with the possibility of gently exploring options with the church. This means you hunt down what you describe as the person in charge, which is usually a clergy person but sometimes a full-time administrator. Explain how much the noise and traffic bothers you and politely ask if the church can think of any solutions. Maybe they could shift the time of certain activities, widen driveways if they have a parking lot, ask the congregation to stagger their arrival times, or even more things. If they have more than worship service on a Sunday, see if they could delay ringing the bells until the latest service is about to begin.

I do not have any optimism that the conversations with the congregation's representative will work, but it's worth a try.

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