Washington Twp. Officials Consider Generator Law

Washington Township may create a new law for residential generators in order to address issues with the machines' exhaust and noise.

Councilman Richard Hrbek noted that more residents have been using generators in recent years. Some residents were without power for weeks after Hurricane Sandy hit the area last fall.

"With the storms we've had, it's becoming a really popular addition right now," Hrbek said.

Hrbeck and Councilman Glenn Beckmeyer both said they had talked to officials in surrounding communities, but most don't yet have ordinances covering generators.

Some of the possible rules include requiring generators be placed outside on a concrete pad and/or in an enclosure, limiting the volume of generators, limiting the size of generators, limiting generators to serving one house each and creating guidelines for where on a property generators are allowed to be placed.

"You don't want a guy putting a megawatt generator on the side of his house," Beckmeyer said.

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