Church application approved

Sanibel Community Church's application to modify its original conditional use permit to include two additional air conditioning units was approved at Tuesday's Sanibel Planning Commission meeting.

That said, the matter was discussed for nearly three hours by commissioners, several upset resident neighbors and Ray Pavelka, representing the church.

To address complaints about excessive noise made by the air conditioning compressors that face neighboring residences, Pavelka provided data from three sound pressure level tests done at the site. Starting with a base "ambient" background noise level of 42 decibels, a church consultant recorded a level of 48 to 49 db with all seven A/C units running. Code Enforcement readings ranged from 56 to 59 db, about the same results as an outside source.

JIM LINETTE The entrance to Bailey's Center located on Periwinkle Way adjacent to George & Wendy's has been closed since it no longer meets city code. The center is moving the entry drive east on Periwinkle and modifying much of its parking lot.

City code states sound levels should not exceed a level of 60 db between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and 66 db from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

"Both readings are below 60 db, the lowest level allowed," said Pavelka. "We have to be responsive to the residents' concerns, but there are limitations. In the interest of being good neighbors, we will continue to look at options to reduce noise."

Pavelka said a number of measures already have been taken on the issue, such as additional vegetation buffer for the affected residences, installing larger trees, reducing sidewalk and hard surfaces and using smaller residential size dual compressor units made by Trane. Constructing sound abating fences or walls might not be a solution because of restrictions.

Though the church's request to add two A/C units, for a total of seven, still meets the city standard for noise level, neighbors in the adjoining area known as Island Woods are not satisfied.

"The natural vegetation barrier is now gone because of land clearing for the construction," said resident Kurt Harjung. "It protected us from the noise made by Jerry's Supermarket's cooling towers. We, the residents, added a vegetation barrier at our expense. This (church) is the most ambitious project on Sanibel in 20 years and it's right next to a residential area. It's now a big open area."

Neighbor Mark Mathusa spoke the harshest words for the project.

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Church application approved