An image of an example sound wall barrier provided to the Fort Morgan City Council for the special use permit application for a 14-foot sound barrier wall at the future FedEx Ground Facility at 2929 E. Platte Ave. (Courtesy City of Fort Morgan / The Fort Morgan Times)
A 14-foot sound barrier wall has been permitted by City Council at 2929 E. Platte Ave. for the new FedEx Ground Facility.
The wall will ensure the facility complies with Colorado state noise regulations, Public Works Director Steve Glammeyer said. Noise was a consideration by FedEx from the beginning of the process of locating in Fort Morgan, Glammeyer added.
"When FedEx began to look at Fort Morgan and to build their facility here, they undertook a sound study to determine whether or not that facility might have some impact to the surrounding properties," Glammeyer said.
The sound study by Cavanaugh Tocci Associates, Inc., found there could be noise bleed from back-up alarms from different vehicles or equipment, including tractor-trailers.
"It did bleed just enough off site that they felt it warranted a sound wall buffer," Glammeyer explained.
With noise control measures in place, the study found the FedEx facility would fulfill state regulations. The recommendation, Glammeyer said, was the 14-foot sound wall.
"Are these walls really that effective in dampening the sound?," City Councilman Dan Marler asked.
The barrier will not eliminate noise completely, Glammeyer said, but would do enough to lower the noise level below the state regulation.
"The study says they are," Glammeyer said. "Are you going to hear back-up alarms if you're in 21st Century's parking lot? Yes. But they'll be muffled from what they would be if you didn't have the wall."
Glammeyer explained the reasoning for the proposed sound barrier placement on the east side solely: "There was a question about, well how come there's not one on the west side, and you'll see there's a pretty good buffer between the actual building and the edge of the property."
"There's some ponds in there and various things, so I think that's why you don't see one on the other side or to the north, because there's really no traffic up there," he added.
The special use permit memorandum reads the proposed sound wall was higher than the eight-foot fence restrictions within city code. This brought up a quandary for staff, Glammeyer said, there's nothing specifically in the city code for a 14-foot sound barrier wall. He and City Attorney Jason Meyers took this seriously.
"Jason and I talked at length about, how do we deal with this? Do we kind of ignore it? Do we treat it as an alternative fence?," Glammeyer said.
It was presented during the special permit process as an 'alternative fence' to both allow for public comment on the installation of such a large wall and to ensure that this issue was addressed officially to avoid future confusion.
"We felt, let's at least take it through the process in case somebody has a concern about a 14-foot tall wall," Glammeyer said. "It's an alternative fence, that gives us an opportunity to have a special use permit, a public meeting and a public hearing, to give folks an opportunity to review this case."
There is also a security fence in the plans for the site, which adheres to city fence requirements.
"We wanted to make sure that they had some finality in this decision, so that five years down the road somebody doesn't come with a pitchfork and try to tear down their 14-foot wall," Meyers said. "We wanted to make sure that this was something that was deliberately approved, so that they have the right to continue using that."
The diagram provided of the land shows that the only neighbors are a single residence and 21st Century. Both were notified, but failed to provide comment in response. Several members of Council praised the forward-thinking of the sound barrier for future neighbors.
"Future development could include multi-use, we could have residential upstairs and commercial downstairs. So looking into the future, it's a smart decision," Councilwoman/Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Northrup said.
Marler agreed and praised FedEx for going beyond city requirements.
"I agree with Lisa, as far as bringing this forward to just kind of formalize, I think that's a good call," he said. "I've been kind of skeptical as to whether or not they really need to put a fence up there, but if they're willing to do it, and it's beyond the state, then, spectacular."
Glammeyer also expressed a similar appreciation: "I agree. I appreciate their willingness to come forward and do this, and their foresight to think through that. I think that, certainly they've built a lot of these over the country and I think that they've learned as they've gone that these things are very valuable to them as well as the neighbors."
"How to be a good neighbor 101," Northrup added, laughing.
The special use permit application brought up the question as to what the sound regulations are within the city.
"While Fort Morgan does have some noise ordinances and information in our code, we don't have specific restrictions or criteria of what those restrictions might be, but the state does," Glammeyer explained.
Glammeyer detailed what those state limits include: "They tell you, you can't have more than 'x' decibels projecting this far off site. We don't have those types of specific criteria numbers in our code. We just say you gotta keep your noise level down. In our code, if you're making excessive noise at any certain times, code enforcement would go out and work with those folks."
Meyers said he was not clear as to whether the City of Fort Morgan was automatically required to follow the state-level sound requirements. The permit process has brought up that the lack of sound regulations in the city needed to be considered moving forward," Meyers said.
"Certainly something that we should probably look at into the future, treating residential uses is probably different than commercial uses, different than industrial uses, because of the nature of the properties that surround them," he said. "It's just something that we don't have on the books, and certainly didn't have the time to re-write the code to address this issue in that timeframe."
The only similar example in the city is a fence by the Sol Naciente housing.
"That fence that runs on the south and east of their property is technically there for sound barrier requirements that they needed for their grant," Meyers said. "You wouldn't think of a fence as a sound barrier, but that's why they only have it on that side, because that apparently fixes the problem for train noise for them."
The special use permit passed unanimously, with the condition the permit would stay in place for future owners and users of this property.
"We would want to have that flexibility to allow, either FedEx or some other industry in the future to move in there and still operate and have this wall be a part of their infrastructure there," Glammeyer said.
David Hull, representing Ruedebusch Development and the property owner Carl Ruedebusch, came to the meeting, but did not make any statements and was not questioned by the Council.
Kara Morgan: kmorgan@fmtimes.com or 970-441-5103
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