Share and Follow
PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. () — People who live in the Rice Hope neighborhood in Port Wentworth, are calling for more action from the city. Hundreds of trees that acted as a sound barrier between their neighborhood and Interstate 95 were cut for development. The city has made some effort to dampen the noise, but residents say it isn’t enough.
Daniel O’Connor and his wife, Melissa Purinton, have lived in the lakeside part of Rice Hope for five years. They along with several of their neighbors say they built their homes, paying 2 to 3 times more for their “premium view” of Lake Indigo, which was once filled with trees.
“It was gorgeous. The lake was there. All the trees covered the entire area. It was quiet. It was fantastic,” O’Connor said.
Their beautiful view changed more than a year ago when developers were given the go-ahead to build more homes and the trees blocking the noise from I-95 were cut down.
Noise levels of 55 decibels or more, outdoors, are considered an annoyance, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. A Rice Hope resident bought a decibel meter, which often rises above 60 decibels and has hit a max of 72.
To dampen the sound, City Manager Steve Davis told News 3 in early February of this year, “We’ve had a berm installed that wasn’t in the original plan and a fence-line on top of the berm. In addition to that, they’re planting trees there that will redevelop into it.”
He says while it is unfortunate that this happened, “at this point, we’ve done the corrective measures that we can do.”
The people who live here say it is not enough.
“I’m frustrated, obviously angry… that it had to come to this point,” O’Connor said. “I feel deceived from the perception that we put our trust in the city, and we put our trust that they’re going to do the right thing. Then when trees get cut down, we hear that… ‘We’ve done everything we can.’”
“The berm has not done anything, and the fence hasn’t either. I think there was a comment that it’s really from a visual perspective. I think that it was mostly to kind of remediate the eyesore of just staring at the big trucks,” Purinton said.
Because of where the berm, a flat strip of land or bank near a river or canal, and the fence is, these residents say that the noise jumps over the newly built one-story homes and lands in their front yards, to their two-story homes. The loud noise also causes them sleep troubles, specifically for Melissa.
“Any time a noise wakes you up when you’re sleeping, it’s really aggravating. I think the biggest thing is that it impacts you the next day. It impacts your ability to work, and if you have kids, it affects their ability to focus in school the next day,” she said.
Residents are calling for a sound study to be conducted and, ideally, and sound wall put up. If this does not happen, the couple says they are considering moving elsewhere.
“If I knew that this was going to happen five years ago, I wouldn’t have moved here,” O’Connor said.
But, they say their home was recently appraised for $100,000 less.
“We attribute that to obviously the sound of I-95, but also the safety for single families… there is really a big push for families to move here, but it’s just not necessarily a safe place. If you have little kids, they could run out into I-95, which is really scary,” Purinton said.
News 3 did reach out to the developers for comment but we have not heard back.
