The sounds of concrete being mixed and made in the overnight hours is keeping people in a McKinney neighborhood near Highway 5 and Stewart Road up at night. Their complaints to the city, they say, haven’t yielded any changes.
“We are waking up most nights somewhere between three and four in the morning, which is difficult for us because we have little ones,” said Anna Davis.
The Davis’ say the noise began keeping them up at night shortly after the holidays.
“We’re used to a little bit of background noise that’s never been an issue, but we’re talking about beeping noises or blending noises, it’s distracting,” said Davis.
Her neighbor Cathie Franzen agrees, describing the sounds of large trucks and industrial noise in the early morning hours.
“There is a high pitched saw. It sounds like a pressure saw or something screaming,” said Franzen.
Franzen moved into the neighborhood more than a decade ago and says at least one of the concrete batch plants across Highway 5 predated the homes built nearby, but she says the operations have expanded and the work hours keep her up at night.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
“The noise level got worse and worse, waking you up in the middle of the night,” said Franzen. “The noise level was higher than it should have been. I don’t know what decibels it was but I could hear it here in my bedroom.”
NBC 5 reached out to the City of McKinney late last week. In a statement, it responded:
The City of McKinney notified the business mentioned in the initial complaint and the company voluntarily agreed to limit overnight noise and halt deliveries until after 6 a.m. We received another complaint this week against another business operating in the same area and will reach out to them in the same manner. Staff have taken initial noise readings near the businesses and have yet to find any violations of our noise ordinances. The city will conduct overnight noise readings to ensure the businesses are in compliance. Any businesses found in violation of our code will be issued a citation. Even if the city finds there are no noise violations, we will do our best to ensure all businesses are a good neighbor to our residents.
There are three concrete batch plants near the neighborhood.
One of the plants, Martin Marietta, told NBC 5 in an email:
Martin Marietta has NO crushing operation on site at our McKinney location. In addition, we operate our plant within the prescribed ordinances of the City of McKinney in regard to noise decibel levels. With that being said, we would welcome the opportunity to meet with our neighbors to answer questions they might have about our operations or company. We pride ourselves on being good neighbors in the communities in which we operate, and we are always looking for opportunities to improve those relationships.
NBC 5 was not able to reach management at another plant, CowTown Redi Mix.
A third plant, Lhoist North America, didn’t return a voice message from NBC 5 last week.
Davis says she’d simply like to hear more from the city about why overnight operations are allowed to continue within earshot of homes.
“I don't know what's preventing them from speaking to us a little further,” said Davis. “It seems like this shouldn't be happening in a residential area.”
