No one seems to like how the amplified entertainment permit process is done, so city staff and downtown advocates are working to change it. <\/p>\n
Following a number of complaints from downtown residents and business owners, the Law and Public Safety Committee Tuesday began discussing how to address the process for obtaining an amplified entertainment permit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe residents weren\u2019t happy because it was an evidentiary hearing,\u201d said Councilor and committee chair Mary-Ann Baldwin. \u201cThe merchants weren\u2019t happy because it automatically pitted them against residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current process involves a quasi-judicial hearing, which is used for other special-use permits and for site plan appeals. This is an arduous process that requires people to bring expert testimonies and evidence if they wish to prove why the City Council should deny a business an amplified entertainment permit.<\/p>\n
Police officers also expressed concern with enforcement, citing problems with the use of sound meters to enforce the rules. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do need to be a little more thoughtful in how we go about that process and reviewing that process in general,\u201d said one Raleigh police officer. \u201cI do question the accuracy of where we are taking the measurements.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Diaz, president of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance<\/a>, contacted the Responsible Hospitality Institute<\/a> for ideas on how to handle amplified noise. A recent study of a city comparable to Raleigh included suggestions such as staggered closing times for establishments and changing zoning laws to include amplified noise. <\/p>\n \u201cIt could be that no city in America is using sound meters any more,\u201d Diaz said, \u201cbut rather using the zoning orders to establish zoning districts where in a few blocks there is clear expectation that there is going to be amplified noise before two in the morning on weekends and maybe 11 on the weekdays.\u201d<\/p>\n City Attorney Thomas McCormick also pointed out that a city ordinance allows for the creation of an entertainment district, but that the Council never chose to create one.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could simply be considered an administrative permit like the indoor amplified permit. You don\u2019t need a hearing for that,\u201d McCormick said.<\/p>\n The committee decided to keep the issue at the table while the Downtown Raleigh Alliance works with city staff and downtown stakeholders. The issue will return in three months. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The City Council\u2019s Law and Public Safety Committee this week began to discuss ideas for changing the amplified entertainment permitting process for businesses and residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1466,761],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}