A controversial bill imposing noise restrictions on pet birds in residential zones was shelved by a Honolulu City Council committee Tuesday.

The Public Health, Safety and Welfare Committee deferred Bill 51 at the request of Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, the measure’s author, who said the Kamehameha Heights bird owner who was targeted by the bill was slapped with a Notice of Violation by the Department of Planning and Permitting earlier this month.

“Our goal is really not to impose new burdens or restrictions on those who are not in any way causing disruption in the neighborhood,” Fukunaga said.

The city has cited “the individual property owner who has been sort of the basis for many of the complaints,” she said, and has an ongoing investigation against him. As a result, a deferral would allow DPP to further investigate any possible violations of existing law, she said.

Bruce  McGonigal, the Naio Street bird owner in question, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after the hearing that he is a bird collector. He said that while his main business does not involve breeding or selling birds, he does pursue both in small numbers. He said he has worked with neighbors and bird clubs to reduce his population of more than 100 birds on his property by at least 10. Other birds have been moved to other parts of his property away from neighbors.

Fukunaga’s latest draft called for noisy birds to be included under the definition of public nuisances when there is “an accumulation of birds producing loud calls that exceed 45 decibels during nighttime hours or 55 decibels during daytime hours.”

Bill 51’s original draft called for a limit on the number of birds allowed in each household and requiring aviary enclosures to be a certain distance from a neighbor’s property, two conditions that met stiff opposition from bird owners groups.

The latest draft also was criticized by bird owners Tuesday, who argued that the allowable decibel levels were unreasonably low and that they found it offensive the Council would consider birds in the same “public nuisance” category as rats and inanimate objects.

They also argued that thousands of law-abiding bird owners would be discriminated against due to one man’s fight with his neighbors.

Bird supporter Jeff Nash said his decibel reader recorded the conversation taking place in the Honolulu Hale Council committee room Tuesday at 55 to 60 decibels, showing that the noise levels offered by Fukunaga would be “pretty much impossible to comply with.”

The proposal to treat birds as public nuisances should also be applied to all other animals, he said. “I feel kind of like us bird owners are being singled out.”

Kathleen Leisek, a neighbor of McGonigal’s, said noise levels coming from the birds have dropped noticeably “but not enough” in the past month since he has agreed to appease neighbors by moving some birds elsewhere or relocating some to other areas of the house.

Art Challacombe, city deputy planning director, said his agency is determining what civil fines to impose on McGonigal for keeping, raising and breeding birds on his property for commercial purposes.

That’s because McGonigal previously had been cited in 2006 and 2011 for the same violation. He corrected both violations before the city fined him, Challacombe said.

Also Tuesday, the Council Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee voted to defer Bill 5 (2014), which would have eased Oahu’s stringent fireworks law that allows only common firecrackers to be set off on New Year’s Eve and Independence Day.

Initially set to allow both sparklers and smaller fountains back into the allowable category, committee Chairman Trevor Ozawa proposed deleting sparklers from consideration. The new draft also, to assuage concerns of Honolulu fire officials, deletes a proviso that would have allowed consumers to get refunds on fireworks permits if they cannot find pyrotechnics to purchase.

The committee chose to defer the bill in committee rather than move it to the full Council for a final vote so the public could digest the latest draft and offer comments.