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Music or nuisance? Inverness may clarify

Officials revisit the noise ordinance after a resident complains about a restaurant.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published November 5, 2005

INVERNESS - What sounds like music to one person might be an irritating noise to another.

When an Inverness resident complains to city officials about a noisy neighbor, how do they decide what is allowable music and what is a nuisance?

That job falls to city staffers, who consult the city's noise ordinance. Staff members are taking another look at the ordinance because of concerns that it's too broad and difficult to enforce.

The current document is a one-sentence description that prohibits excessive noise: "The volume of sound inherently and recurrently generated shall be controlled so as not to become a nuisance to adjacent property owners."

Some city officials worry that's a bit too subjective, said Inverness director of development services Ken Koch.

"The problem that we had with it is it's very difficult to enforce because it's very broad," Koch said.

City staff members are considering what criteria could be added to the ordinance to make it more specific and easier to enforce.

Among the possible changes: prohibiting any amplification devices for use outdoors if they create loud noises that go beyond 50 feet from the source, and outlawing loud noises between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. with the exception of alarms and permitted events such as fireworks.

The questions about the ordinance spring from the testy relationship between Chateau Chan Sezz, the French restaurant on North Apopka Avenue, and one of its neighbors, John Godowski.

Chateau Chan Sezz offers live jazz, blues and rock music at the restaurant. Godowski has complained to city officials and to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, saying the music is disruptive to the neighborhood.

City Manager Frank DiGiovanni said he has asked restaurant owner Keith Chancas to abide by certain conditions, including asking the bands to finish by 10 p.m. The restaurant has complied with everything the city has asked, DiGiovanni said.

But Godowski says the restaurant's music is still too loud and disruptive to neighbors. "(Chancas) just doesn't belong in this neighborhood," Godowski said.

At the restaurant's Oct. 26 concert for the Cooter Festival, the music was so loud that neighbors felt their walls vibrating and heard "screaming" from the band, Godowski wrote in a statement faxed to the Citrus Times.

Godowski wasn't home the night of the event, but he said his neighbors told him about the noise.

Koch said the city didn't receive any complaints that night from residents.

"Let me say, obviously, we think if people were concerned, they would have called that night," he said.

But Godowski said many residents have complained to him about the restaurant's music. He often stands in his yard, decibel meter in hand, measuring the noise.

"There's no way we're putting up with any more nonsense," he said.

The music is too loud and heavy, not at all appropriate for the neighbors, he said.

But Chancas says the music played for the Cooter Fest event was hardly screaming metal music. What did they play? Covers of B.B. King and the Allman Brothers Band.

Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 860-7312 or vansickle@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 5, 2005, 01:22:18]