We're following up on the noise issue in the City of Harrisonburg. It's an issue we've been covering for a while now.

Tuesday night, council held a public hearing to get ideas about the proposed changes. Council unanimously voted to move ahead with the ordinance. They heard from several people about the idea to deal with things like large parties and the noise that comes with them.

The change deals with the rules on "large social gatherings." The amendment also increases police enforcement of noise from nighttime to all day. It also requires a permit and advanced notice of large parties.

WHSV's Bob Corso talked with the president of JMU's student government association about the issue.

Matt Mueller explained, "We understand that there certainly is a problem in the community and these amendments wouldn't have been brought up if there was no problem in the first place, but we don't think it's the proper way of addressing the problem."

Mueller was one of many people who shared their thoughts at the public hearing Tuesday. Council decided to make the ordinance go into effect September 15th, after they hold a second hearing on the ordinance, as is policy for all new city ordinances.