Palmetto hesitant to jump on board Manatee County's noise ordinance

PALMETTO -- While the city of Bradenton took swift action last week to piggy-back onto Manatee County's new noise ordinance coming up for a June vote, Palmetto is saying not so fast.

The city debated for months last year about revising its own ordinance, particularly addressing amplified music, but scrapped the proposal in October.

Concerns about how the county's proposed ordinance is worded and how it would be enforced have Palmetto officials cautious. City Attorney Mark Barnebey said the ordinance is designed to address county codes and it doesn't necessarily match up to the city's definitions.

"Noise ordinances are always challenging under the First Amendment," said Barnebey. "However, this will need some cleanup in order to apply to the cities."

Barnebey said the county has different definitions pertaining to commercial districts, and he is concerned how a violation would stand up in court if the language doesn't pertain to the city.

"Another example is that they have a special magistrate process and we have a code enforcement board," he said. "The county ordinance also doesn't address mixed-use projects where you have

commercial and residential on top of one another."

Ward 2 Commissioner Tambra Varnadore said it would be good to have uniformity across the county and the city needs to do something. She said she received a noise complaint from a constituent over the weekend and told the concerned citizen that the noise would have to be reduced by 10 p.m.

"But I was surprised to learn that the current ordinance has no time limit," Varnadore said. "I always thought it was 10 p.m., but there is nothing in the ordinance. I thought we had discussed this."

Vice Mayor Harold Smith raised a concern about the enforcement language in the county ordinance. Currently the city's first offense would require a warning, but according to the county's language, someone could technically be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor and taken to jail on the first offense. Consequences in the county's ordinance include:

First violation: A citation, $250 fine or charged with a second-degree misdemeanor or arrested on the same charge.

Second violation within 365 days of first violation: $500 fine or charged with a second-degree misdemeanor or arrested on the same charge.

Third violation within 365 days of the second violation: Charged with second-degree misdemeanor and either arrested or given a notice to appear in court.

"That's no warning," said Smith, who noted he wouldn't support joining the county's ordinance under the possibility of someone going to jail for a first offense.

Police Chief Scott Tyler said the city isn't really having any major noise issues.

"Right now, we don't have a big problem and the complaints we do have usually get handled with a first warning," he said. "It's a radical departure from the way we handle noise ordinances now."

The county ordinance provides for both decibel readings and the reasonable person standard, however, the local state attorney's office has informed the cities and the county that it will not prosecute cases without a decibel reading.

"The safest thing to say for now is that we are open to it, but if it's word for word, then we'll need our own ordinance," Varnadore said.

Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter @urbanmark2014.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 11:27 PM with the headline "Palmetto hesitant to jump on board Manatee County's noise ordinance ."