NOISE Pollution Ordinance Language LINN County Iowa

  1. Noise Analysis. No operating data center equipment shall produce decibel levels exceeding any of the following limitations, with the exception of initial construction and routine maintenance. Adequate setbacks and effective sound mitigating equipment shall be used to comply with these limitations:
  2. The average hourly noise level shall not exceed fifty-five (55) dBA or sixty-five (65) dBC as measured from the outer wall of any occupied structure within residentially zoned property adjacent to the proposed development. For property adjacent to the proposed development that is not residentially zoned, the average hourly noise level shall not exceed sixty-five (65) dBA or seventy-five (75) dBC as measured from the outer wall of any occupied structure. The average decibel limit is specific to source of the sound and does not count against cumulative ambient decibel levels as established in a baseline acoustic evaluation.
  3. Equipment testing, maintenance activities, and construction activities that generate elevated noise, including generator testing, shall be limited to the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, unless otherwise approved by the Zoning Administrator. County approval for excessive noise generation shall not be unreasonably withheld.
  4. The average hourly decibel level may be exceeded during short-term events such as severe windstorms.
  5. A pre- and post-construction noise evaluation shall be completed by a certified professional by the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE), or a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) to verify compliance with the County's standards. The post-construction nose evaluation shall be completed after completion of all planned data center buildings at the end of construction (as defined in section 107-151(I)(5)).
  6. Commencing on the fifth anniversary of the end of construction, as defined hereafter, and continuing every five years thereafter, for so long as the data center operates, a noise evaluation shall be completed at the operators' expense by a certified professional by the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE), or a licensed professional engineer (PE) to verify compliance with the county's standards in section 107-151(I)(1). Completion of all data center buildings, or end of construction, means the date on which all of the following have occurred: completion of construction of the data center or, in the case of a phased or multi-building campus, all buildings of the multi-building data center campus, and issuance of a certificate of occupancy for all related buildings; and the data center operator has communicated, in writing, to the Zoning Administrator that it has completed the data center campus; provided, that, if all construction has stopped on the property for more than six (6) consecutive calendar months, other than due to delays by the