The city of East Lansing, Michigan is cracking down on noisy air conditioners after a resident complained that her elderly neighbor’s unit kept her up at night.

According to Michigan Capitol Confidential:

Two next-door neighbors in the city had a disagreement about how loud an air conditioning unit was. After months of dispute and threats of a restraining order, one neighbor asked a member of the city council to pursue an ordinance that would effectively ban the use of the other’s air conditioner.

The homes of residents Marilyn McEwen and Karen Twyman are 10 feet apart and McEwen’s air conditioner, which runs at above 60 decibels, is located between the two houses. According to city emails obtained by Michigan Capitol Confidential, McEwen is elderly and needs the air conditioner to sleep. Twyman claims the noise created by the air conditioner keeps her from being able to sleep.

Eventually Twyman contacted Mayor Mark Meadows and City Councilman Erik Altmann in July 2016 to push for noise restrictions on air conditioners after she claimed ear plugs and calls to the police did not help the situation.

“Is this an issue that might gain some traction here in East Lansing?” Twyman wrote in an email to Altmann. “If it might, I would like to pursue it.”

Last September, Meadows broached the subject at the city council meeting and Altmann backed the move. The city researched other municipalities in Michigan with similar restrictions, then outlawed air conditions that produce more than 55 decibels at night or 60 decibels during the day, as measured from the property line, during a meeting in March.

“The ordinance’s caps could effectively ban a number of air conditioning units. Carrier, a leading manufacturer of air conditioners, lists 17 units on its website for residential use. Only one of those could operate at fewer than 60 decibels. Ten can only operate above 70 decibels,” MCC reports.

Altmann later defended the decision in an email to a city resident, and suggested those who do not currently comply can erect a privacy fence around their air conditioner to cut down on the noise.

“In my mind, the ordinance serves a public interest if it guides decisions about locating new units, and if it gives someone who’s feeling besieged by unwelcome noise some institutional backing,” he wrote. “I have been in this situation, and that does inform my thinking.”

City of East Lansing’s Ordinance No. 1377 now states:

The operation of air conditioning, air handling devices, refrigeration devices or other compressors causing a continuous sound level in excess of 60 dBA between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. in an R-1, R-2, or R-3 residential district and in excess of 55 dBA between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. in an R-1, R-2, or R-3 residential district as measured at any property line. This subsection shall not apply if the sound from the air conditioner or air handling device produces less than a three dBA increase in the sound level that exists in the absence of such sound.

Those who violate the ordinance between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. are first served with a warning letter from the city, followed by a civil infraction if they do not heed the warning.

If the violation occurs between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., “or within four hours of committing a prior violation,” will be charged with a misdemeanor and issued a $250 fine for a first offense, $350 fine for a second offense within a year, and $500 for a third offense within a year.