‘Bad actors’ prompt new ‘Turn Down the Sound’ rules in Raleigh
.JPG "Glenwood Avenue and Cornerstone Tavern bustle with club-goers before 1 a.m. in the Glenwood South district on Friday, July 21, 2023.")
Raleigh isn’t asking nicely anymore.
The City Council updated Raleigh’s noise and nightlife rules last year to try to quiet the louder parts of town.
But “bad actors” found a loophole to keep their loud music going, the city says, especially in Glenwood South.
Now, the council has updated the rules again to ensure compliance.
“I call it the ‘turn down the sound’ ordinance,” Deputy City Attorney Dottie Kibler said of the revised noise ordinance. “It is an ordinance that requires a person who receives a citation, whether civil or criminal, to turn down the sound after that citation has been issued.”
If a bar or club refuses, it can get another citation.
The revised noise ordinance also sends appeals to the city manager or the manager’s designee instead of the Police Department.
The revision to the nightlife ordinance requires clubs with outdoor, amplified music that get a noise citation to move the music inside for 24 hours,
‘Constitutionally dubious’
An attorney representing “numerous bars, taverns, nightclubs, lounges and banquet halls” calls the revised ordinances “constitutionally dubious.”
The city has better tools to resolve noise complaints and punish “bad actors,” attorney Abraham Rubert-Schewel said in a letter to city leaders.
“[M]any of our clients’ businesses operate largely outdoors, and depend on amplified music to attract customers,” according to the letter. “Prohibiting any outdoor amplified sound, at any volume, effectively shutters them. The City will lose out on significant tax revenue as a result. And our clients’ employees — many of whom are compensated through tips — will suffer the most when they are abruptly unable to work.”
The revised ordinances only apply to establishments that hold a nightlife permit, but there are “hundreds of businesses that use outdoor amplified sound” that do not have a nightlife permit, according to the letter.
Rubert-Schewel represents Dan Lovenheim, who owns several bars and clubs in the entertainment district including The Village and Alchemy. Lovenheim sued the city last year over alleged violations of his First Amendment rights.
His businesses faced a “repeated pattern of harassment, threats, and, eventually, false enforcement actions” by city officials, according to the lawsuit.
On Jan. 3, multiple bars received noise complaints, but The Village was the only bar that received a ticket, Rubert-Schewel said. In a video shared by Rubert-Schewel, a Raleigh police officer says another bar didn’t get a ticket because it was in the “education phase.”
“This is why we believe the RPD is directly targeting The Village,” he wrote in an email. “The Village has received numerous citations since it re-opened in August, while other bars that are just as loud and getting noise complaints are not being cited.”
Over 150 complaints
The Raleigh Police Department suggested the changes, City Council member Jane Harrison said.
There were 158 noise complaints from January to September of last year. Of those, 12 resulted in civil violations and 18 resulted in criminal citations, she said.
“That is going to prevent repeat offenders from turning up the noise,” Harrison told The News & Observer. “We’ve had some issues with incidents where clubs were turning up the music after the police visited with a violation.”
Some businesses were treating a noise violation as a “cost of doing business,” said Council member Jonathan Lambert-Melton.
“People would get a citation and just not really respond to it,” he said. “So we were, in an effort to try to quell some of the bad behavior, make the enforcement piece more substantial, so that if you do get the citation, there is an incentive to actually turn your noise down or to comply.”
Last year, the Glenwood South Neighborhood Collaborative funded a report that showed the nightlife area generated $1.2 billion in resident and visitor spending.
“We want all the nightlife areas, whether it’s Glenwood South or anywhere else in the city, we want them to be fun and lively, but also safe and respectful and good neighbors,” Lambert-Melton said.
