By Tony Cantú
Contributing Writer

In Terrell Hills, silence really is golden. In recent action, City Council members approved an ordinance limiting the hours construction can take place – with outright bans on weekends and holidays – accompanied by increased fines as a bolstered deterrent to would-be violators.

During its March 10 meeting, council approved a measure designed to more strictly enforce an existing noise ordinance targeting contractors with construction permits.

Weekday hours allowing for heavy construction from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. remain the same, but City Council tweaked its ordinance to ban work entirely on weekends and municipal holidays.

Violators face increased fines as well, with council approving an increased minimum fine from $10 to $50 and the maximum $200 fine to $500.

“The times did not change, but the fines changed and now we’re not allowing work on city-observed holidays,” said City Manager Mark Browne in a March 18 interview – the week the new ordinance officially took effect. He explained the tightened controls target contractors with heavy equipment and not your average Joe tooling around on the house: “This is for permitted work. For someone wanting to work in their garage, that’s okay.”

Browne said City Council members passed the measure after hearing residents express dismay about increased noise in their neighborhoods.

The new ordinance was passed after city officials posted a legal notice the week before alerting the public of proposed changes, as required by law. With passage, the new statute took immediate effect.

“Up until this point, you could actually work on a weekday holiday technically, like on Thanksgiving,” the city manager said. “We changed that to say work is prohibited on city-observed holidays. The rationale for that is that staff is not here to monitor work being done at those times.”

Other holidays when heavy construction is banned include Christmas, Presidents Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, Browne said.

Terrell Hills’ action is just the latest noise-control measure pursued by officials at nearby communities. In Olmos Park, Councilman Jeff Judson is trying to establish so-called “quiet zones” in his city, requiring train operators to mute their horns within close range of neighborhoods.

Buoyed by residents’ support, Judson wants to create the quiet zones at his city’s four main railroad crossings – at Basse Road, McCullough Avenue and Dora and Zilla streets – in order to silence train whistles from the estimated 40 trains traveling through town each day.

But even Judson concedes the measure is still some time away from becoming reality. City traffic studies must first be conducted in tandem with San Antonio officials before applying for federal approval to establish the quiet zones.

Time will tell if the various noise-busting ordinances will effect any real decibel-lowering change in their respective communities. But one sound seems certain to remain among residents in northern communities: Shhhhhh!