"As a resident spoke before the City Council on Tuesday about the loud, amplified music that regularly emanates from street performers on the Downtown Mall, rock music erupted from the back of the council chambers, drowning out the speaker.

It was an apt coda to a debate over the appropriate noise level for the mall and for music venues across Charlottesville.

The unintentional interruption came from the laptop of Jim Perkins, co-owner of the Sage Moon Gallery, who later voiced to council to his support for an ordinance that would restrict the sound level of musicians on the mall to 75 decibels.

Such a limit is needed, Perkins and several downtown denizens told councilors, so that patrons at restaurants and downtown businesses can shop and eat without being disrupted by excessively loud music.

“I love hearing them play. But I don’t like hearing them play so loud I can’t talk to my customers,” Morgan McKenzie-Perkins, the gallery’s other owner, said of Charlottesville’s street musicians.

By a 4-1 majority, councilors supported the noise ordinance, which also would set new sound restrictions on restaurants and bars. Councilors will not officially vote on the measure until March 3.

If the ordinance is passed, musicians on the mall will have to limit their playing to 75 decibels - about the noise level of a vacuum cleaner. The problem, city officials said, mostly stems from musicians who use amps.

“I think it addresses an issue I’ve been concerned about, which is the change of noise on the mall” from acoustic to amplified, Councilor David Brown said.

The new ordinance also would require music venue owners to restrict the sound coming from their establishments to below 75 decibels after 10 p.m. In most cases, officials said, music venues could avoid violating the ordinance by keeping all doors and windows closed.

However, the ordinance would not affect the Pavilion, the source of many residents’ noise complaints. And that was cause enough for Mayor Dave Norris to signal his disapproval.

“I personally think it’s a little unfair to hold small businesses to a different standard than the Pavilion,” Norris said.

Last year city police received 52 noise complaint calls around downtown. Some of those complaints were in regard to loud noise coming from music venues adjacent to single-family homes, especially in the Belmont neighborhood.

“The noise ordinance is a welcome change,” said Janet Hatcher, who said the “walls in my living room vibrate” sometimes from music from the nearby Saxx Jazz Club.

The Pavilion would be exempt from the new noise ordinance because it has a separate contract stipulating shows end by 11 p.m. on weeknights and by midnight on weekends.

Pavilion operators say they work closely with bands to ensure that the noise stays below a certain threshold, though they declined to say what the decibel level of that limit is.

In response to resident complaints about noise in 2005 and 2006, new noise dampening material was added to the bottom of the Pavilion roof to help capture the sound so that it would not waft into adjacent neighborhoods.

“We feel we have been very successful in eliminating the problems we had in 2005 and 2006,” said Kirby Hutto, the Pavilion’s manager.

Hutto said he received only one noise complaint during the entire 2007 concert series.

Belmont residents concur that the music from the Pavilion is not as loud as it was in the past. But some say it is still a major problem.

“At various times during a concert, my house will shake,” Kimber Hawkey, a Belmont resident, said. “It sounds like there is a frat party going on next door.”

In other business, the council was slated Tuesday night to explore forming a permanent committee that would run Charlottesville’s sister city program. The council discussion took place after The Daily Progress’ deadline.

Charlottesville has three European sister cities: Poggio a Caiano, Italy; Besancon, France; and Pleven, Bulgaria.

A steering committee has recommended the creation of a permanent sister city committee to help boost the program, plan activities and solicit private funds. The committee could have a budget of $15,000 from money already allocated in the current city budget." (Seth Rosen, The Daily Progress, February 20, 2008)