Residents, businesses work to compromise on downtown noise

Posted on January 5, 2008 in Downtown by DM

photo of des moines skyline with flowers With the increased housing options and new residents moving in downtown, we now have people complaining about the noise from the Court Avenue entertainment district. It seems a rather obvious point to make, but I’ll make it anyway: if you move downtown it’s because you either a). want to be part of the hustle-and-bustle or b). want the convenience of being close to where you work. Either way, noise is going to be part of that, and you should probably factor it into your decision of whether to move. Kind of like moving in next to the train tracks and then complaining about the noise from the trains. (Oh wait…)

At any rate, residents are complaining and the city seems to feel there’s room for compromise, so efforts have been made to re-write the noise ordinance to scale back the level of acceptable noise and still allow for live bands on bar patios, outdoor special (noisy) events, etc. The Register’s reporting that the new ordinance will be on the council agenda on January 28.

At least one person accurately predicted the fight over decibels: J. Michael McKoy, host of the “Mac’s World” program on 98.3 FM and a Des Moines area restauranteur, has said on his program that he was invited to open a restaurant on Court Avenue a couple of years ago. But, seeing all the new housing being built, McKoy said he knew a noise battle would ensue and so he declined to participate. The Register reports that, for his part, long-time Court Avenue entrepreneur Larry Smithson plans to work with officials to help reach a workable compromise.

Purely as an aside, I thought the Register’s lead-in to this story was interesting: it noted that the current ordinance was “enforceable less than 1% of the time” in 2007, but that lots of city staff time has been spent rewriting it. The effect, of course, will be that lower acceptable noise limits will increase the percentage of times the ordinance could have been enforced, thereby strengthening the case for change. That’s a bit like lowering the benchmark that determines whether humans are diabetic, then claiming a “huge increase in diabetes.”

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