Palmetto finalizes new noise ordinance — for now

After almost a year of trying, Palmetto officials passed a new noise ordinance in a 3-2 vote, but many of the key sticking issues may eventually renew debate leading to potential amendments.

Through months of debate, a variety of disagreements ran the gauntlet between commissioners, but on Monday night, Commissioners Jonathan Davis, Tamara Cornwell and a reluctant Brian Williams passed the new ordinance, with Harold Smith and Tambra Varnadore dissenting.

Among the key items stemming from the debates: Palmetto police officers cannot be a complainant. The complaint must come from a resident and the creation of an entertainment district has been scrapped, at least for now. Commissioners also will revisit the possibility of capping the number of events held at Sutton Park.

Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant said the setting of decibel levels and determining the number of events “are two different issues,” and were holding up the passage for too long.

A sticking point for Varnadore was setting decibel levels for special function permits at 100. The number essentially safeguards the city’s larger events, but Varnadore said there shouldn’t be a universal number set that high for all special function permits. The city issued 93 special function permits ranging from concerts to festivals to weddings to family reunions during the past year.

“Now they all have a special function permit where they can crank it up to 100 for every event,” Varnadore said. “I understand the Fourth of July, but lumping them all into like a Fourth of July event, I have an issue with that.”

Varnadore said the city offers small and large special function permits and a different criteria should be established for both. Smith was against the ordinance from the beginning, arguing consistently that the new ordinance would only create problems, not resolve them. The city has had only four noise complaints in the past two years relating specifically to special function permitted events.

“Why are we doing this? Why are we wasting time?” Smith asked. “This noise ordinance is unbelievable to me. We don’t have no complaints, we are just creating something. I don’t want to be a part of creating problems.”

The passage of the ordinance does achieve the primary goal of making it enforceable. Early this year, 12th Judicial Circuit Court State Attorney Ed Brodsky said the courts would no longer prosecute noise ordinance violations based on the reasonable person standard. Cities had to establish decibel levels and document the violations with certified equipment.

The city’s new decibel levels are 75 in areas of the city not zoned strictly residential, which remain at 65. Nonresidential hours would be from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. on weekdays and until midnight on weekends and holidays, at which time levels must drop to 65 citywide.

This story was originally published November 8, 2017 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Palmetto finalizes new noise ordinance — for now."