Escena homeowners want city to regulate noise level

Escena homeowner Chris Parman says he wakes up to a blaring sound every morning.

“Our alarm clock at Escena is the lawn mowers,” he said.

They mow outside his bedroom window at a noise level Parman feels is unbearable.

“An airplane is a little over 120 decibels, but we have 95 decibels about 50 feet from our bedroom window,” Parman said.

Parman and other homeowners say if a noise ordinance passes at Wednesday’s city council meeting, the golf course will be allowed to consistently violate residential noise levels set by the state by mowing the course as early as 5:30am.

The city says it’s just clarifying ambiguities in the current municipal code.

“These kinds of operations can occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our ordinance says it can only occur between 5:30am and 8pm,” said Palm Springs City Attorney Doug Holland.

Escena Golf’s general manager John Fitzpatrick says course maintenance has always started at the same time in order to prepare the greens for the first tee times. He adds that they use the same equipment that virtually every other valley golf course uses.

Homeowners say that noise is too loud.

“It’s the city’s job to protect the residents from excessive noise. The state and city have declared public noise creates a health hazard,” Parman said.

The city says homeowners who choose to live on a golf course sign up for a certain level of inconvenience, and that it’s not up to the city to regulate sound level.

“This is probably best handled between the property owners and the golf course. The solution isn’t for the city to come in and mandate a decibel level,” Holland said.