Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

If it wasn't for Mary having that relationship, we wouldn't have been able to establish that and turn that from a constant complaint location to a positive.

Hey Raleigh, curious about how things really work in your capital city? We've got answers straight from the experts who make it happen. Welcome to Your City Answered. I'm Ran Northam. On January 1st this year, Raleigh City Council updated the city's noise ordinance. With those changes, the city has hired new staff and updated its approach to tackling the issue of noise in downtown. So how is the City of Raleigh enforcing the noise ordinance for amplified sound at businesses? Let's head over to the Raleigh Police Department downtown headquarters to talk with Raleigh Police Sergeant Joseph Wilkins, Special Events Hospitality and Nightlife Planner Rachel Bainey, Noise Ordinance Compliance Officer Mary Hunt, and Raleigh Police Public Affairs Lieutenant David Davis to get the answer.

Noise downtown is pretty much anything. And when we're talking about the amplified entertainment establishments, It's mostly their amplified sound, their music that they're pushing. And when it comes to enforcing the noise ordinance, we like to not use enforce. That's a tool that we use. Enforcement is a tool. And what we've done is established... very, very good relationships with our businesses. And that has turned into voluntary compliance. So every week we don't go out to find noise violations. We don't go out to enforce the noise ordinance. We go out to maintain that relationship and to ensure that they stay in the compliance. Voluntary compliance is a great tool that we've used. We've got great relationships with all of our business partners all over Glenwood. When we go out, we get thumbs up, thumbs down. They ask us, you know, it's not, oh, what did we do wrong? It's, oh, hey, great. Today we have this band playing or we're going to be doing this thing. And it has become a very positive thing for Glenwood. It's been a very positive thing for the community members that live around the area and in the Glenwood area. And between the partnerships of the community members, the businesses and the city of Raleigh, we've established something that most people didn't think was possible. And it was a really good balance. That's our primary goal.

Rachel, this is not a new thing. I mean, you all worked with council this past year. Noise ordinance is not a new endeavor, but what you did to adjust it, make it work for as many people as possible is what we're talking about nowadays. Talk a little bit about some of the work. You don't have to go too far in depth, but as far as looking at what is the issue that we're trying to solve and who you might have worked with along the way.

Yeah, for sure. So yeah, the noise ordinance and amplifying sound is not a new issue, but we have spent several years fine-tuning what works best for our areas most populated with bars, restaurants, and clubs. We connected with really good folks at the Responsible Hospitality Institute to learn about sound management and mitigation and learned that Sound is meant to be enhancing a downtown and not a noise to be diminished. So we actually worked with a sound consultant out of Austin, Texas, who had done a lot of work on finding the balance between bars and neighbors. Because quite frankly, there were some issues on both sides of the aisle of how our noise ordinances were working for bars. And we were able to come together and meet with both residents and bar owners to find what works for a successful business and quality of life.

And one of the things that came out of that discussion with council is some more recommendations on how to go about this. That comes to you, Mary. New positions, civilian level. And speaking about what Sergeant Wilkins was saying, this isn't about going out and saying, you've done wrong, let's enforce it. You know, let's find people. But to build those relationships even more and on the civilian side. So how long have you been here now? And what has it been like getting up to speed here in the city of Raleigh?

So the noise ordinance compliance officers, we all began in the month of March. So roughly four months, going on five months. And thankfully, Sergeant Wilkins and his team in the city of Raleigh, they laid the foundation So as we approach the managers, the bar owners, they already know we're coming. They know who we are, thankfully. And that's helped contribute to establishing those relationships to where we can give our city cell number. And they'll text us, they'll call us if they have questions, if they want us to come and complete a compliance check prior to one of their events. So that's been very helpful in not only establishing relationships with us personally, but also just helping them to build trust And the work that we do that we are, we're coming in unbiased, we're coming in consistently, no matter what type of establishment it is, we're going to provide the same type of service.

Well, one of the largest cities in the country now. I believe we've gone less than 40th largest city in the country now. We're growing at a very rapid pace. How has downtown changed, let's say in the last 10 years even? I think that's a big part to this discussion, that downtown is changing rapidly and constantly.

Yeah, downtown has grown a lot in the last 10 years. The way the sound is played, at one time we didn't really have outdoor establishments. They had to have an outdoor amplified entertainment permit. All that's changed over the last decade. We see a lot of places that have an outdoor venue space. We see a lot of people that want to go sit out outdoor venue spaces. You know, Glenwood itself has changed. That area has grown. We've seen other establishments throughout the entire downtown. We have, and the entire city, we have places like North Hills is growing. So what we've seen is people want that vibrant nightlife. They want places to go out, enjoy, be safe. You know, people that live here, it's all about work. play, live, that whole community. So that's one of our goals, again, is building that bridge between the community and the businesses to allow everybody to enjoy the entire atmosphere of what it can bring. And that's kind of our job is to make sure that It doesn't go overboard that everybody maintains that little bit of understanding that the businesses are here to provide something for the community. The community is here to go to the businesses and enjoy it. And sometimes some people have unreasonable expectations. The businesses may want to play louder and louder, and we have to tone that down. And sometimes the community members want it to be peace and quiet, but we also have to learn that we're in a growing city and we have a vibrant nightlife. So downtown has grown, but It's our job to maintain that balance and that's our primary goal and that's what we've been doing.

What is ambient sound and how does that kind of play into this whole conversation and just getting more of a baseline in more of the city?

So the ambient sound would be what you hear throughout the day, the cars, it could be police sirens, ambulance sirens, it could be the birds chirping, dogs, people talking. So during the daytime, various days of the week and various times of the day, we'll go out and we'll just take ambient readings at some of the business, well, actually most of the businesses just to get an idea what levels they are during the day. So that way when they're open and in business and the music is playing at night, we have something to compare. We have levels to compare. We just try to collect the data just to see what the difference is in a residential neighborhood behind a business on a Monday. And then also when that business opens on a Friday night from that same place, what's the reading? So that's helped to contribute to... helped us to learn how sound travels and making sure that we take accurate readings depending on where the person, the caller, the complainant is calling from.

The ordinance is not about every part of the city. There are specific areas that we're looking at and making sure that we improve upon and focus on noise and the noise ordinance for amplified sound. So what does this noise ordinance, what does it cover and what areas of the city are we trying to take care of as far as it pertains to this ordinance?

Yeah, for sure. So this was an amendment to amplified sound at commercial establishment. We are not dealing with other types of noise at this time. And the way to read amplified sound at commercial establishment is through decibel limits. both the bass, which is what you hear rumbling through a window, and the treble, which is the words of a song. So we are focusing, we have a citywide standard that all businesses need to adhere to, but we recognize that downtown works differently than other parts of the city. So therefore we created our first district with enhanced decibel limits, which is typically known as the Glenwood South area. You can go to our website to see the official boundaries, but that area has higher limits. And the ordinance is set up if in the future there's another pocket of successful businesses, we could create higher standards above the citywide limit.

What's the goal now going forward? I mean, it sounds like this has been a really good start to the first half of the year. What's next for what you've been working on? Mary, you just got here. You've got some colleagues as well. What's next for as far as noise downtown?

So my colleagues, Kevin Thompson, Morgan Forbus, and Colby Lehman, as well as myself, our goal is to continue to educate and also push for voluntary compliance. That's probably why we've been so successful thus far. The businesses, they knew it was coming, but now they see us out there. They see us completing compliance checks. They see us during the time that the business is open. We're out there. If we get a call, we go out there. They see us reading. They'll come out. A lot of times they'll actually meet us. So it's just to continue to educate, continue to push for voluntary compliance for us.

I think the overall term that was used by everybody was balance. I know that's something that's really important to not only the businesses, but also the community as well. And the city leadership is making sure that we have a balance for people that come in, want to enjoy the nightlife, but also people that live in these areas where we're going to have more noise than in other parts of the city. Just knowing that we're here to support you, just like the city's here to support our businesses.

Yeah, let me speak on one of our little success stories that we had recently. And it was during when our sound consultant come down is we had a small location that was pretty much surrounded by residential. It's more of a civic location. And there was lots of noise complaints. instead of just saying hey turn the sound down it wasn't you know feasible they they have events that's what they do it was more how can we make this managed properly and sometimes the solution is not just to turn volume down it's just it's beyond that so we went um Again, about the relationships, Mary had the phone number, contacted the person, hey, let's set up a time. We come out the next day, we brought sound equipment, we set up speakers, we had two people running sound meters. And we looked at it, it wasn't just about the volume, it was about speaker placement, location, possibly adding new sound dampening and then also showing them what tools they could use they bought their own sound meter and then educating them on how to use the sound meter so they could self-evaluate and self-monitor and what that led to was no more noise complaints so it's We're here to help. We're here to do the enforcement if it's necessary. But that voluntary compliance extended above and beyond that to self-monitoring. And now this establishment is able to have their events, but they can just do it more intelligently. They have the knowledge now because we helped them learn that. And if it wasn't for Mary having that relationship, we wouldn't have been able to establish that and turn that from a constant complaint location to a positive. So please reach out to us so we can help you be successful.

Between the four of us, we work as early as 7am and as late as 3am, seven days a week. So there is more or less 24 hour coverage.

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