Talk about the speed of sound. When Council members Bruce Stanley and J. B. Loring first planned to update the city’s noise ordinance, they were trying to hush a rowdy Lebanon Road bar neighboring a local subdivision.
But the unintended consequences reach way beyond a local honky tonk. The reworked bill lowers the volume for nearly every area—from Vanderbilt to Cheekwood. “I know it’s bad if you try to target one business and try to make laws,” Loring admits. “But we found out that there were a lot of other businesses that were doing the same thing.”
Passed with no opposition at the Dec. 5 meeting of the Metro Council, the new noise ordinance forbids establishments within 50 feet of a residential area from playing loud music outdoors after 11 p.m. When Metro Council attorney Don Jones originally crafted the legislation, he exempted Cheekwood, the Belle Meade Mansion, local universities, and various Metro facilities on the theory that they were all nonprofits whose musical events typically would be in the form of a fundraiser.
But somewhat surprisingly, Council members Lynn Williams and Ginger Hausser, whose districts include Cheekwood and Vanderbilt, respectively, urged that the exemptions be lifted.
“There have been numerous complaints from area residents about outside amplified entertainment during outdoor parties held at Cheekwood,” Williams says. “They’ve had more weddings and fundraising events than ever before.”
Williams says that while Cheekwood has been cooperative in meeting with local neighbors, legislation updating the existing noise ordinance would render clarity to the contentious issue of noise pollution. And Cheekwood officials don’t seem to be too irritated, especially since the bill does not affect the Swan Ball, the organization’s most profitable fundraiser. The tony gala is held inside a tent, but that is generously considered an indoor space and therefore does not fall victim to the ordinance.
Much like Williams, Hausser also had to weigh the interests of a prominent institution vs. local neighbors. For Hausser and apparently other local residents, Pink Floyd’s booming 1994 concert at Vanderbilt’s Dudley Field remains a sore spot. “There was some discussion on whether Vanderbilt and other universities should be exempt, and I just felt like they should not,” she says. “It would kind of defeat the purposes of the ordinance.”
But while some exemptions were lifted, others were added. At the request of at-large Council member Leo Waters, the bill was changed to exempt Music Row and downtown.
“People who move into those areas know that there are going to be certain events nearby and some of them are musical,” Waters says. “And there have been little or no complaints from people living in those areas.”
Which brings us to our civics lesson. Waters, for one, says that crafting law in response to a neighborhood dispute can create more problems than it solves.
“You have to be careful about legislating countywide solutions to specific individual problems, because a lot of times what you have are unintended consequences,” he says. “For instance, we fought so hard to keep Fan Fair in downtown Nashville. We wouldn’t want this ordinance to prohibit that.”
But others suggest that it takes cold, hard legislation to quiet the noise. “You could not address this on a case-by-case basis,” Stanley says. “We have the responsibility to address every situation in a similar manner.”
