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APPROVED 5/10/2010 <br /> <br />OC Board of Adjustment – 3/8/2010 Page 27 of 86 <br />1 2 3 <br />4 <br />5 6 7 <br />8 <br />9 10 11 <br />12 <br />13 14 15 <br />16 <br />17 18 19 <br />20 <br />21 22 23 <br />24 <br />25 26 <br />27 <br />28 <br />29 30 <br />31 <br />32 <br />33 34 <br />35 <br />36 <br />37 38 <br />39 <br />40 <br />41 42 <br />43 <br />44 <br />45 46 <br />47 <br />48 <br />49 50 <br />51 <br />52 <br />53 54 <br />Nick Herman: If I am talking to you now, what are my decibels? <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: The average level in this room as we are talking among us is around 60 decibels. <br /> <br />Nick Herman: In terms of the sound of my voice and what you are talking about, that without any screening or buffering, <br />either with all the dogs barking, assuming 20 dogs barking all at once, that on the boundary of the property, you would have <br />sound that is less than what we are hearing in this room? <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: Much less. This is around 60 and we are talking less than 40. That is less than 1% of the actual sound <br />energy. The ear doesn’t hear it exactly that way, it wouldn’t be like 1% of the sound but it would be much less than the 60. <br /> <br />Nick Herman: Do you have any concern about this facility creating any acoustical problems for the neighbors? <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: I am confident that the building will contain the sound of the dogs and that the dogs within the building will <br />not be any problem for the neighbors. <br /> <br />Rob Maitland: Trying to get smart over here quick. What is the normal dog bark, how many decibels? <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: A single large dog, 50 feet away would measure, outdoors, around 72. <br /> <br />Rob Maitland: If you have two dogs barking would that double? <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: If they were to bark at exactly the same and they would have the same dog with the same bark, it would <br />go up three decibels. <br /> <br />Rob Maitland: So each dog would be an increment of three decibels? <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: Each doubling with the amount of dogs would increase three decibels if you assume they are all barking at <br />the same time. <br /> <br />Rob Maitland: So if you had 20 dogs outside barking, how many decibels is that? <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: If you assume the bark in sync at the same time, going from one to twenty, about 13 dbs higher but they <br />won’t bark at exactly the same time exactly together so you’re not going to measure that much higher. <br /> <br />Rob Maitland: You are saying 20 dogs outside barking will be about 85 decibels. <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: If you had 20 dogs continuously barking all the time outdoors, up around 80 or so at 50 feet. <br /> <br />Rob Maitland: It doesn’t seem very loud if you are telling me this is 60 decibels. <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: Well, 80 versus 60 are significantly louder, much significantly louder. If you had continuous sound of 80 <br />db at your property line, I often tell people that is shotgun level; you don’t want to allow that. Many noise ordinances will <br />allow up to 60 decibels at the property line in residential area in the daytime. <br /> <br />Rob Maitland: So, 80 is shotgun level. <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: That would be very unreasonable to have a continuous sound level of 80 dbs. <br /> <br />Rob Maitland: Two dogs would be about? <br /> <br />Noral D. Stewart: At 50 feet, one large dog, reported level is around 70 so if you had two dogs barking at exactly the same <br />time, dogs aren’t known to synchronize so it is not likely you will get them exactly the same. If you could, you would go up 3 <br />dbs.