For years, students have flocked to Windfall Hill as often as four nights a week to party with bonfires and bands. But nearby neighbors aren’t as enthusiastic.
In 2006, the Board of Supervisors set a midnight cutoff on weekends and an 11 p.m. cutoff on weekday nights. But this fall, residents pushed for an earlier weekday limit. On Oct. 14 the board voted 3-2 to amend the ordinance and move the weekday cutoff to 10 p.m.
Neighbors say the late-night noise has become disruptive, calling it “a significant quality of life issue.”
According to Sec. 4-42., noise is considered any sound that annoys, disturbs or “tends to cause an adverse psychological or physiological effect on humans.” As a result, county residents have been pushing for a strict enforcement of the earlier cutoff.
News of this change spread quickly among students. During Washington and Lee’s Halloween weekend, deputies enforced the new ordinance on the Hill for the first time. After the deputies arrived, Ella Dutton, ’26, said that several residents of houses on the Hill received tickets for violating noise levels.
Some students say the change could have consequences for Washington and Lee’s social scene. Dutton said social life at W&L can be a driving factor for students who decide to attend the university over other small liberal arts colleges.
Dutton said she believes that because many of the residents reporting the noise violations chose to live in a college town, they should be more understanding that college is a time when people want to throw parties.
Sec. 4-46. states that the first noise violation is a Class 3 misdemeanor, a Class 2 misdemeanor for the second offense within a year and a Class 1 misdemeanor for the third offense.
If the person directly responsible for the violation can’t be identified, the ordinance says “any owner, tenant, or resident physically present on the property where the violation is occurring” will be presumed guilty of the violation unless sufficient evidence is provided to overturn it. In addition to the misdemeanor charges, the county may apply to the circuit court for “an injunction against the continuing violation” of the ordinance. “Because the noise ordinance just passed, people are harping on it more,” Dutton said. “Hopefully as time goes on, it will become less and less strict.”
Dutton said the 11 p.m. cutoff was much better.
“When it was 11 p.m., parties would get shut down here and there, but parties could still go until 2 a.m.,” Dutton said.
She said she wasn’t aware of major tension regarding the noise levels before now.
Many of the county residents, including some of the members of the Board of Supervisors, said they were grateful for the new time cutoff.
“I think people ought to be able to have some peace and quiet in their houses, especially during the week, especially those with young children or just old folks like me,” Supervisor Daniel Lyons said.
