The demolition of an old federal building was the straw that broke the camel's back for some downtown St. Petersburg residents.

"The dust and the noise that was generated there for weeks on end, every day of the week, including holidays, including Sundays, was unbelievable," explained Emil Pavone with the Downtown Residents Civic Association.

Now, residents are banding together to force a rewrite of St. Petersburg's noise ordinance.

In the future, builders will have fewer hours to make noise, and they'll have to present a noise control plan to get a building permit.

"If you can advise your citizens prior to late night or early morning activity, they know that there's a start and a finish, then they can live with that," explained Councilman Bill Foster.

But the residents want more. They want the police to discard the noise meters they currently use and use their ears instead.

"You need a machine to tell you something's too loud? No. If you can hear from 100-feet away it's too loud," offered Pavone.

St. Petersburg's City Attorneys aren't in favor of that idea. They say without the meters, deciding what is too loud would be too subjective.