Section 24-203. General definitions

When used in the New York city noise
  control code the following terms shall have the following meanings:
    (1) "A" level means the sound level as measured  with  a  sound  level
  meter  using  the  "A" weighting network. The unit of measurement is the
  dB(A).  This frequency weighting network for the  measurement  of  sound
  levels  shall comply with standards established by the American National
  Standards Institute specifications for sound level meters S1.4-1971,  as
  amended or S1.4-1983, as amended.
    (2)  Activity  means  any  act  or  combination of acts which actually
  results in the production of sound.
    (3) Air  compressor  means  a  device  which  draws  in  air  or  gas,
  compresses it, and delivers it at a higher pressure.
    (4)  Air  horn  means  a  device intended to produce a sound signal by
  means of compressed air or gas or exhaust gas.
    (5) Airport means an area of land or water that is used or intended to
  be used for the landing and take  off  of  aircraft,  and  includes  its
  buildings and facilities, if any.
    (6)  Ambient  sound  means  the  sound  level at a given location that
  exists as a result of the combined contribution in that location of  all
  sound  sources,  excluding the contribution of a source or sources under
  investigation for violation of this code and excluding the  contribution
  of  extraneous  sound  sources.  For purposes of the enforcement of this
  code, the ambient sound level of a  given  location  may  be  determined
  based  upon  measurements taken at a comparable site (which includes but
  is not limited to comparable physical locations and time of day) in  the
  nearby area.
    (7)  Apparatus  means any mechanism which prevents, controls, detects,
  measures or records the production of sound.
    (8) Audible status indicator means any sound reproduction device on  a
  motor  vehicle that emits or causes to be emitted any continuous or near
  continuous sound (exceeding 5 seconds if tonal in nature or any duration
  if verbal in nature) for the purpose of warning that an audible  burglar
  alarm has been installed on such motor vehicle and is operational or for
  creating  the  appearance  that such an alarm has been installed on such
  motor vehicle and is operational.
    (9) Authorized emergency vehicle means an authorized emergency vehicle
  as defined by section 101 of the vehicle and traffic law.
    (10) Board means the environmental control board of the  city  of  New
  York.
    (11)  Building  means  a  building as defined in section 27-232 of the
  administrative code.
    (12) Building aperture means any designed opening  in  a  building  to
  which  a  person may reasonably have access including but not limited to
  any door, gate, window, skylight or hatch.
    (13) Burglar alarm means any sound signal device designed and intended
  to produce a sound signal upon unauthorized entrance by a person into  a
  building or motor vehicle.
    (14)  "C"  level  means the sound level as measured with a sound level
  meter using the "C" weighting network. The unit of  measurement  is  the
  dB(C).  This  frequency  weighting  network for the measurement of sound
  levels shall comply with standards established by the American  National
  Standards  Institute specifications for sound level meters S1.4-1971, as
  amended or S1.4-1983, as amended.
    (15)  Certificate  means   an   operating   or   temporary   operating
  certificate.
    (16)  Charter  means the charter of the city of New York including all
  of its amendments.

    (17) Circulation device means any device which  circulates  a  gas  or
  fluid,  including  but not limited to any air conditioner, pump, cooling
  tower, fan or blower.
    (18)  Claxon means any manually, mechanically, or electrically powered
  device, other than an emergency signal device, including but not limited
  to a motor vehicle  horn,  which  is  intended  to,  and  when  operated
  actually does, emit a sound signal.
    (19) This code means the New York city noise control code.
    (20)  Commissioner  means  commissioner of environmental protection or
  his or her authorized representative.
    (21) Construction or construction  work  means  any  or  all  activity
  necessary   or  incidental  to  the  erection,  demolition,  assembling,
  altering, installing  or  equipping  of  buildings,  public  or  private
  highways,  roads, premises, parks, utility lines including such lines in
  already-constructed tunnels, or other property, including land clearing,
  grading, excavating and filling.
    (22) Construction device means any device designed  and  intended  for
  use  in  construction  including, but not limited to any air compressor,
  pile driver, sledgehammer, bulldozer, pneumatic  hammer,  steam  shovel,
  derrick,  crane,  steam  or  electric  hoist,  construction  vehicle  or
  pneumatic or electric tool.
    (23)  Construction  material  means  any   material,   regardless   of
  composition, designed and customarily used in construction including but
  not  limited  to  any  rails, pillars, columns, beams, bricks, flooring,
  wall, ceiling or roofing material, gravel, sand, cement or asphalt.
    (24)  Container  means  any  receptacle,   regardless   of   contents,
  manufactured  from  wood,  metal,  plastic,  paper or any other material
  including but not limited  to  any  barrel,  basket,  box,  crate,  tub,
  bottle, can or refuse container.
    (25)  Decibel  means  the  practical  unit  of  measurement  for sound
  pressure level; the number of decibels of a measured sound is  equal  to
  20 times the logarithm to the base 10 of the ratio of the sound pressure
  to  the  pressure  of  a  reference sound (20 micropascals); abbreviated
  "dB".
    (26) Device means any mechanism which is intended to or which actually
  produces sound when operated or handled.
    (27) Department means the department of environmental protection.
    (28) Dwelling means any building lawfully occupied in whole or in part
  as the temporary or permanent residence of one or more natural persons.
    (29) Dynamic insertion loss means the  difference  between  two  sound
  pressure levels which are measured at the same point in space before and
  after  a muffler is inserted between the measurement point and the sound
  source under operating conditions.
    (30) Emergency means a public calamity or an exposure of any person or
  property to imminent danger.
    (31) Emergency signal device means any gong, siren whistle,  or  siren
  or  any  air  horn  or any similar device the use of which on authorized
  emergency vehicles is permitted by  subdivision  twenty-six  of  section
  three hundred seventy-five of the vehicle and traffic law.
    (32) Exhaust source means a system which removes and transports air or
  gas from a device.
    (33)  Extraneous  sound  is  sound  that is intense, intermittent, not
  representative of the relatively steady sound levels at a given location
  and not attributable to a source  or  sources  under  investigation  for
  violation of this code. Such sound includes but is not limited to sirens
  of  passing  emergency  vehicles,  unusually  loud motor vehicle braking
  (screeching) or exhaust noise,  people  shouting,  animal  vocalization,
  passing  aircraft,  horn  honking, car door slamming and passing trains.

  Notwithstanding the foregoing provision, sounds  that  are  individually
  persistent  or  controlling of the sound level at a given location shall
  not be considered to be extraneous sounds if they constitute  more  than
  50  percent  of  the  duration  of  an  ambient  or  total  sound  level
  measurement such as for example the sound of a  passing  aircraft  at  a
  specific location if airplanes regularly pass over such location and the
  proximity of such passing aircraft to the location, its sound level, and
  the  duration  of such sound level, control the sound level at the given
  location at the time the  sound  source  under  investigation  is  being
  measured.  For  the purposes of the enforcement of this code, extraneous
  sounds are excluded when measuring the ambient sound level  at  a  given
  location and when measuring the sound level of a source or sources under
  investigation  for  violation  of this code except where such sounds are
  themselves under investigation for violation of this code.
    (34) Impulsive sound is sound that is of short  duration,  where  each
  peak  of  sound  lasts  2 seconds or less. The sound is characterized by
  abrupt onset and rapid decay. As used in this code, the  term  impulsive
  sound shall not include music.
    (35)  Internal  combustion engine means a device for the production of
  energy by means of the combustion under pressure of fossil fuel.
    (36) Lawn care  device  means  any  device  powered  mechanically,  by
  electricity,  by gasoline, by diesel fuel or by any other fuel, which is
  intended to be used or is actually used for the  mowing  of  grass,  the
  cutting  or  chipping  of  trees,  tree  roots  or tree branches, or the
  clearing of leaves or other vegetation  from  lawns,  sidewalks,  public
  streets  or  public  highways  and shall include, but not be limited to,
  such devices as lawn mowers and lawn  mower  attachments,  lawn  edgers,
  leaf blowers, leaf vacuums, mulchers and chippers.
    (37)  Lmax  means  the  maximum measured sound level at any instant in
  time.
    (38) Motor vehicle means any device which is propelled by an engine in
  or upon which a person or material may be transported on the ground  and
  which is intended to be operated upon a public highway.
    (39)  Muffler  means  an  apparatus  generally  consisting  of but not
  limited  to  a  series  of  chambers  or  baffles  for  the  purpose  of
  transmitting gases while reducing sound levels.
    (40)  Owner  means  and  includes  the  owner  of  the freehold of the
  premises or lesser estate therein, or mortgagee  thereof,  a  lessee  or
  agent  of  any  of the above persons, a lessee of a device or his or her
  agent, a tenant, operator, or any other person who has  regular  control
  of a device or an apparatus.
    (41)  Paving breaker means any powered construction device intended to
  cut or trench  pavement,  subbase  macadam,  gravel,  concrete  or  hard
  ground.
    (42)  Person  means any individual, partnership, company, corporation,
  association, firm, organization, governmental agency, administration  or
  department,  or  any  other  group  of  individuals,  or  any officer or
  employee thereof.
    (43) Personal audio device means a portable sound reproduction  device
  as normally and customarily used for personal purposes including but not
  limited  to  a  personal  radio,  phonograph,  television receiver, tape
  recorder or compact disc player. For the  purposes  of  this  definition
  such  term  shall  include  a  sound reproduction device installed in or
  operated from a motor vehicle whether or not portable.
    (44) Plainly audible sound means  any  sound  for  which  any  of  the
  content  of  that  sound,  such  as,  but  not limited to comprehensible
  musical rhythms, is communicated to a person using his  or  her  unaided
  hearing faculties. For the purposes of the enforcement of this code, the

  detection  of  any  component of music, including but not limited to the
  rhythmic bass by a person using his or her unaided hearing faculties  is
  sufficient to verify plainly audible sound. It is not necessary for such
  person  to  determine the title, specific words or artist of such music.
  In the case of motor vehicles the detection of the sound of a muffler or
  of an exhaust by a person using his or her unaided hearing faculties  is
  sufficient  to  verify plainly audible sound. Plainly audible sound does
  not require measurement with a sound level meter.
    (45) Power tool means any device powered mechanically, by electricity,
  by gasoline, by diesel fuel or by any other fuel, which is  intended  to
  be  used  or  is  actually  used  for,  but shall not be limited to, the
  performance of such functions as  cutting,  nailing,  stapling,  sawing,
  vacuuming or drilling.
    (46) Public right-of-way means a public highway, road, street, avenue,
  alley,  driveway,  path,  sidewalk, roadway or any other public place or
  public way.
    (47) Railroad means a railroad, other than a rapid transit railroad or
  street railroad, operated for public use in the conveyance of persons or
  property  for  compensation,  with  all   bridges,   ferries,   tunnels,
  equipment,  switches,  spurs,  tracks,  stations and terminal facilities
  used, operated or owned by or in connection therewith.
    (48) Rapid transit railroad means a rapid transit  railroad  used  for
  local  service  in  the transportation of passengers as a common carrier
  for hire together  with  the  appurtenances,  facilities  and  equipment
  thereof.
    (49) Receiving property means real property, including but not limited
  to  buildings,  grounds,  offices  and  dwelling units, from which sound
  levels from sound sources outside such property may be measured. For the
  purposes of this definition, individual offices or dwelling units within
  a building may constitute a receiving property.
    (50) Refuse collection vehicle means a motor vehicle designed or  used
  to remove, collect, or transport refuse, solid waste or recyclables.
    (51)   Sound  means  an  oscillation  in  pressure,  stress,  particle
  displacement, particle velocity, etc., in a medium with internal  forces
  (e.g.,  elastic,  viscous),  or  the  superposition  of  such propagated
  oscillation which evokes an auditory sensation.
    (52) Sound level meter means any instrument including a microphone, an
  amplifier, an output meter, and frequency  weighting  networks  for  the
  measurement  of  noise  and sound levels in a specified manner and which
  complies with standards established by the American  National  Standards
  Institute specifications for sound level meters S1.4-1971, as amended or
  S1.4-1983, as amended.
    (53)  Sound  pressure  level  (decibels)  means  an  expression of the
  acoustic pressure calculated as twenty times the logarithm to  the  base
  ten of the ratio of the root mean square of the pressure of the sound to
  the reference pressure, 20 micropascals.
    (54)  Sound  reproduction device means a device intended primarily for
  the production or reproduction of sound, including but  not  limited  to
  any  musical  instrument,  radio  receiver,  television  receiver,  tape
  recorder, phonograph or electronic sound amplifying system.
    (55) Sound signal means any sound produced by a  sound  signal  device
  designed to transmit information.
    (56)  Sound  signal  device means a device designed to produce a sound
  signal when operated, including but not limited to any claxon, air horn,
  whistle, bell, gong, siren, but not an emergency signal device.
    (57) Sound source means any activity or device that emits sound.
    (58) This code means the New York city noise control code.

    (59) Total sound level means that measured sound level that represents
  the combined sound level of the source or  sources  under  investigation
  and  the  ambient  sound  level.  Total  sound  level measurements shall
  exclude extraneous sound sources.
    (60)  Tunnel means an underground passage which is intended for use as
  a railway, aqueduct, road, sewer or major utility artery.
    (61) Tunneling means any  activity  necessary  or  incidental  to  the
  construction of any tunnel, including the sinking of shafts to tunnel or
  to an intermediate level and the surface activities required to sink the
  shafts and construct the tunnel.
    (62)  Unreasonable  noise  means any excessive or unusually loud sound
  that disturbs the peace, comfort or repose of  a  reasonable  person  of
  normal  sensitivities,  injures  or  endangers the health or safety of a
  reasonable person of normal sensitivities, or  which  causes  injury  to
  plant or animal life, or damage to property or business.
    (63) Refuse collection facility means any structure, building or other
  premises  at which solid waste is received for the purpose of subsequent
  transfer to another location regardless of whether such solid  waste  is
  subject  to  any  processing  or  reduction in volume at such structure,
  building or premises.