East Lansing officials want to stamp out disruptive drinking games in city neighborhoods.

"It's one thing for these games to be played in bars; it's another thing to have them going on in the front lawns of residential neighborhoods," Deputy City Manager Jean Golden said.

The city's police have noticed an increase in the number of drinking games being played outdoors this year, and those games create noise problems, police Chief Tom Wibert said. The department wrote 542 tickets for noise violations in 2004, but it doesn't keep track of how many involved drinking games.

Tonight, the City Council will consider adding outdoor drinking games to a list of indicators used to issue party noise violations.

Current indicators include a common source of alcohol, a live band or having more than one person on the property for every 20 square feet. The city's party noise ordinance, which went into effect in 2003 and can carry a $1,000 fine or three days in jail, allows residents to be ticketed for parties in which two or more party indicators are present.

Wibert says he isn't trying to prevent anyone from having a good time.

"It just shouldn't disturb the entire neighborhood," he said.

But Scott Davidson, a 23-year-old who lives on Division Street, said his neighbors play drinking games, and he hasn't found it to be a problem.

"The city, I don't think, should have any involvement with private property," Davidson said.

Kinesiology senior Taylor Larson and 2005 graduate Mike Potts said they didn't think the city should be able to ticket students for playing drinking games in their yards, but they understand why some residents might be concerned.

"It can be a problem," Potts said. "Kids can get out of hand."

The City Council would need to hold a public hearing on the issue before approving any changes to the ordinance.

The council had been waiting on input from the city's housing commission and university student commission before tackling the issue themselves — but didn't receive particularly strong support for the proposal from either commission.

The housing commission recommended the ordinance not be changed on the grounds that the existing language isn't being enforced. The student commission didn't take issue with the proposed addition but suggested more fundamental changes to the ordinance.

"It's more or less a compromise," said Melissa Horste, a member of the student commission. "The way that it is currently written, it is incredibly vague, and it doesn't really capture the type of parties it was intended to."

The commission asked City Council to revise the ordinance, making the presence of more than one person for every 20 square feet in a house a requirement for a violation, rather than one of the five party indicators. The change would ensure that the party noise ordinance focused only on large gatherings, Horste said.

Mayor Pro Tem Vic Loomis said he'll look seriously at the recommendations.

"Any ordinance we have, I think we need to look at periodically," Loomis said. "We haven't looked at it very thoroughly, and I think this is a good opportunity."

It's unclear if the city has the legal authority to ban outdoor drinking games outright, said assistant city attorney Tom Yeadon, although several East Coast cities have already made that move.

Wibert said the existing party noise ordinance has been effective in reducing large parties, and police have been able to keep most parties under control without the need to issue a ticket.

Adding the proposed factor to the ordinance could have a similar effect on outdoor drinking games, city officials said.