Ramon E. Nugent and Hal Amick
Historically,
the primary purposes of municipal land use zoning ordinances are to protect
and promote a desired quality of life and to ensure that incompatible land
uses do not occur. These ordinances often arise from concerns expressed by
individuals and businesses in a community. Zoning considers aspects of community
planning such as compatibility of adjacent land uses, aesthetics, housing
needs, protection and development of natural resources, population density
and environmental quality.
Typical environmental quality considerations include water, air, solid waste,
and noise. Seldom, if ever, are vibrations considered; when they are, it is
often in the form of a vague nuisance ordinance applying only to the effects
of vibration on people. Rarely does the vibration ordinance quantify the acceptable
limit or describe how the vibrations should be measured. Unfortunately, the
needs of the high-technology community, with very stringent vibration requirements,
are generally not represented in these ordinances.
A good planning
tool is needed for the siting and planning of research and industrial areas
containing sensitive high-tech facilities, such as those used in microelectronics
manufacturing. These facilities are generally far more sensitive to vibrations
than are people. Yet, despite their sensitivity, they are offered no encroachment
protection from vibration by zoning ordinances. In most areas, a paper mill
might be zoned the same as a wafer fab, yet pose a sever problem for the fab's
vibration environment.
This paper reviews the vibration issues which should be considered in siting
high-technology facilities and proposes some guidelines for ordinances which
address these issues.
Reprinted from Proceedings of International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), Vol. 1619 (November, 1991), pp. 86-90.