What’s that noise from behind Sparrow Hospital?

Skyin Yin and her neighbors are getting frustrated with noise at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing.

Over the last five years, she said, a loud droning sound emanating from near the back of the hospital, along Jerome Street, has caused her — and dozens of other eastside residents — to lose sleep and have trouble focusing while working from home. It poses a general annoyance to the Eastfield Neighborhood, which buttresses the northeastern border of the hospital complex along Michigan Avenue, she said.

“We appreciate the value of having a lifesaving organization like Sparrow. However, it should not come at the cost of the neighboring community,” Yin told the Lansing City Council last week. “The noise pollution has been a constant battle with them and is impacting our neighbors’ mental health and even physical health. In the past summer, the noise level has reached an unhealthy level. Many of our neighbors, including myself, have lost sleep, not been able to work or focus while working at home and even felt physically ill, really affecting our quality of life.”

Several other eastside residents approached the podium at City Council last Monday after Yin, each of them mentioning the same general concern: A headache-inducing whooshing sound has been hissing from some type of mechanical building — perhaps a chiller — off Jerome Street behind Sparrow Hospital since at least 2016, and it has only gotten worse in recent years.

And after repeatedly trying (and failing) to reach a solution with Sparrow Health System officials, local residents are after the Council to intervene and force the hospital to quiet things down.

“We have had many conversations with Sparrow regarding the noise pollution,” added Margaret Tassero, a Lansing eastsider. “Those conversations have not proven to be very fruitful, and the noise only continues to persist. It’s also been quite a frustrating experience trying to work with them and trying to have them hear our concerns and respond to them.” 

Tassero also told the Council: “At this point, we really haven’t seen much action from them.”

Like local residents, City Pulse didn’t have any luck reaching officials at Sparrow Hospital over the last week to explain exactly what’s producing the noise or whether they have plans to address neighborhood concerns. Several messages left with officials there were ignored.

Planning Director Brian McGrain also isn’t totally sure what’s responsible for the noise or why it seems to have gotten louder over the last two or three years, but he thinks it’s coming from a cooling tower that was constructed behind the hospital within the last decade. And regardless of the source, he said city officials plan to investigate and find some solutions.

“We’re taking it upon ourselves to independently investigate this,” McGrain said. “We’re treating this as a spot where an independent arbiter — the city — does need to come in and evaluate the situation. We’re launching a noise study this week to get an independent reading, and then meeting with Sparrow to sit down and talk about some options for them.”

City ordinance prohibits the operation of air conditioning units or other compressors that cause a continuous sound level in excess of 55 decibels measured at any property line in residential areas. And while some neighbors have claimed to have recorded noise from Sparrow Hospital that exceeds that threshold, McGrain wants to use a decibel reader for a more scientific reading.

“It could be loud enough. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” McGrain said. “We’ll be out there at a variety of times this week in different areas. We also have an open door with Sparrow, so we’ll be meeting with them within the next few days to try to sort this all out. We want to have this independent reading, and if it’s loud and persistent, then we’ll want to see that noise reduced.”

McGrain said that noise complaints typically revolve around house parties, fireworks and music festivals and that they’re usually resolved with a quick visit from the Police Department. In this case, the issue will be investigated by the Department of Planning and Economic Development. 

“We’re in a bit of a legally different spot if they’re under the decibel limit, but I expect we can work together to reach a solution,” McGrain added. “Sparrow has been there for 100 years. That neighborhood has been there for 100 years. We’re all going to have to work together.”

Complaints over the noise were initially brought to the city’s attention when neighbors voiced concerns this month to the city’s Planning Board, which was considering a resolution to allow Sparrow to take over two strips of public roadways surrounding the hospital — including a stretch of Jerome Street between the hospital and the old Eastern High School and the corner cut-through portion of North Holmes Street that spits out on Michigan Avenue.

Sparrow officials haven’t explained exactly why they want to take over those roadways, only noting in applications that they own all properties on both sides of the street and that the ‘street vacation’ would help to enable future development plans at the downtown hospital.

The Planning Board initially tried to add a clause that would have ordered the health system to mitigate noise pollution before it could assume control over the streets. That language, however, was removed by the City Council last week following some last-minute advice from City Attorney Jim Smiertka, who said the two issues could not be legally tied together.

Instead, the Council unanimously approved the plan, and decided to take up the noise issue separately with a nonbinding resolution that called for a meeting between Sparrow Hospital officials and local neighborhood representatives in the next 60 days.

McGrain said he plans to report back to the Council on whatever solutions are reached.

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