The East Lansing City Council discussed the impact of recent fireworks legislation to the city during Tuesday’s work session, addressing several complaints from the Bailey Neighborhood Association.
In December 2011, Gov. Rick Snyder passed legislation allowing for the sale and use of all fireworks in the state of Michigan, which began on Jan. 1.
East Lansing Police Chief Juli Liebler said typically the department receives about 60 complaints about fireworks per year, but already has received 15 complaints in 2012.
“It’s really too soon to tell how big of an impact this has,” Leibler said.
Currently East Lansing does not have an ordinance in place to regulate the discharge of fireworks in the area, but has been doing so through the city’s noise ordinance, which prohibits noise that may disturb neighbors after 11 p.m.
City Attorney Tom Yeadon said the city is fairly restricted in how it can choose to deal with the issue of discharging fireworks.
Among the issues discussed was the section of the bill that prohibits local communities from enacting legislation to restrict the discharge of fireworks on days surrounding federal holidays, such as Independence Day.
However, Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett said the city’s concern likely will have very little to do with fireworks being set off near holidays.
“I get the impression that the issue is not even the possibility of large displays around the national holidays, but that it’s become a nightly issue,” he said.
Triplett added that some of the problem comes from the city failing to make clear its expectations for the use of fireworks in East Lansing. He said most citizens only know that fireworks are now legal, and are uninformed about how fireworks should be used within city limits.
After discussing the impact of fireworks in the area, the council decided to take a “wait and see” tactic in response to the complaints from the Bailey Neighborhood Association.
“People have identified this as a problem right now, but will it escalate when people get used to it?” Mayor Diane Goddeeris asked. “(Right) now it’s a novelty and I don’t want to pass ordinances just to be reactive.”
As it stands, the department will continue to go forward enforcing the noise ordinance, but the city may revisit the issue in the future if complaints about the discharging of fireworks continue to be an issue.
“I don’t think a noise ordinance will ever clearly grapple the problem,” Triplett said.
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