Trustees Examine Village Code for Home Generators

In response to residents’ complaints about a highly restrictive code for the installation of home generators in Scarsdale, the Scarsdale Trustees Law Committee met on the evening of January 18, 2012 to review the code and get input on revising it. The current code requires that the generator’s noise level cannot exceed 55 decibels at the nearest property line, that the generator be placed in the backyard and be positioned 20 feet from the property line.

John Goodwin from the Village Manager’s Office did some research on the issue and reported that since 2006, 151 residents have applied for permits to install home generators and 113 were approved. Variances were requested by 18 residents, with most asking for permission to place the generator in the side yard rather than the backyard as the code currently requires. Only 63 Certificates of Occupancy have been granted to date as some have not followed through with the building department or the installation has not been completed.

Goodwin also surveyed neighboring towns and found that most require the maximum sound level to be 70-75 decibels, rather than 55 decibels. Though Scarsdale has the same sound requirement for air conditioning units as generators, there are no requirements about the placement of air conditioning units.

In discussion at the meeting, Mayor Flisser noted that since she has been Mayor there have been three big storms, with power outages lasting 4 days, despite pressure applied to Con Edison to restore power more quickly. She noted that power is essential to relieve flooding in some resident’s basements during these storm periods.

Two local contractors were in the audience and provided information about the generators that are available on the market. Though a quiet generator that only emits 55 decibels is available, it is twice as expensive as louder models. The cost for the quiet unit was quoted at $26,000 vs. the louder units at $12,000.

Trustee Richard Toder noted that these generators are only used for a very limited time during emergency situations, and noise is not an overriding factor. He suggested that provisions for noise, setbacks and location be re-examined.

Chairing the meeting Trustee Brodsky commented that if the code for legally installing a generator is restrictive, and the price of the legal unit is prohibitive, it will increase the chance that residents will purchase temporary generators and hook them up themselves. This can be dangerous and therefore she favored modifying the code to make it feasible for more residents to install a legal generator.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the trustees asked the staff to make a recommendation to address the noise, location and setback requirements in order to draft code that provides more flexibility and would allow residents to install emergency generators without requiring a variance.