Residents want cafe to lower the volume

Some townhome owners near the Purple Moon say music is too loud. For downtown to thrive, Dunedin must please merchants and residents.

By DEBORAH O'NEIL

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 12, 2000

DUNEDIN -- Clark Carey and Andrea Dixon abandoned their tranquil life near Dunedin's golf course last year for the city's hip downtown.

Living in the Monroe Park townhomes, the couple shop and dine on Main Street -- just as city officials envisioned when they worked with a developer to create Monroe Park, lauded countywide as a successful model of "new urbanism."

Carey and Dixon chose Monroe Park for the convenience and ambience of downtown. But the couple and other neighbors say what they didn't bargain for was live music in their back yard until 11 p.m. four nights a week. The music comes from Purple Moon, a New Age cafe on Douglas Avenue, just a few feet away from their homes on Grant Street.

Carey, 58, and Dixon, 51, have nothing against live music. In fact, they enjoy it at Flanagan's on Main Street.

"The difference is, I pay to hear their music and I don't pay to hear coffeehouse music in my house," Carey said.

The problem is a sticky one for Dunedin, and it highlights the conflict new urbanism presents as it adds housing to a commercial district. Dunedin needs lively nighttime activity for downtown to thrive. It also needs people like Carey and Dixon who are willing to invest in downtown. "That's a hard one," said Wendy McCarthy, president of the Downtown's Merchants Association. "You've got the merchants that make the downtown what it is and the residents who live down there because of what it is. We don't want to lose the owners of our townhomes, but we don't want to lose our businesses either."

The city of Portland, Ore., began redeveloping its city center with a new urbanism approach about a decade ago and has dealt with similar conflicts, said Bruce Stephenson, a professor at Rollins College in Winter Park who specializes in traditional town planning. The city instituted a curfew, after which time all music has to move indoors, he said.

"They have some of the same problems, complaints about noise," Stephenson said. "Nobody is going to want to live near live music. It's almost common sense. I think it's a compromise that is worked out."

Things were no different in the old days of downtown areas, Stephenson said. That there is noise is really a good sign for downtown, he said.

"It's doing everything it should. It's almost too successful," said Stephenson, who wrote a book examining the development of the St. Petersburg area from the 1920s to the present. "It's not the boring suburbs."

In Dunedin, city officials have cited the Purple Moon for violating the noise ordinance. After receiving complaints, Community Services Director Kevin Campbell went to the neighborhood one night in August to listen. City ordinances specify that music is too loud when it can be heard by someone 100 feet away.

"It was clearly audible at 100 feet away," Campbell told the Code Enforcement Board this week. "It was of a volume that could disturb someone if they were sitting in their back yard or had their windows open."

The Code Enforcement Board postponed a final decision on the matter until April 4.

The owners of Purple Moon say they are committed to resolving the problem. They recently put up a 6-foot fence around their property to act as a sound barrier.

"We really are trying to comply," co-owner Tina Avila told the board. "We want to continue with the live music. It's a wonderful thing we have to offer downtown."

The condominiums and Purple Moon came into being around the same time in late 1998. Both are part of downtown's northward expansion. Avila, who also owns Casa Tina on Main Street, and Sherry Stiver renovated the old house at 833 Douglas Ave., painted it lavender with purple trim and filled the store with an eclectic array of New Age gifts.

But what has made the business a success has been the live music, Stiver said. When the weekend performances proved to be a hit, the cafe added live music on Wednesday and Thursday nights also.

"Our business is probably 50 percent due to the music in the evenings," Stiver said. "Our evening business doubles or triples our daytime business."

That after-dark entertainment is vital to downtown's health, say city and business leaders. It's hard to persuade store owners to stay open late, McCarthy said, so live music gives people something to do after eating at a downtown restaurant.

Robert Ironsmith, the city's economic development director who worked directly with developer Philippe Beau to create Monroe Park, maintains entertainment and housing are compatible in downtown Dunedin.

"When one tries to overshadow the other, you have a situation that's not so great," Ironsmith said. "It's definitely a balance. I think they're getting there. . . . To me, it's just a little bit of growing pain."

Part of the neighbors' complaint is the frequency of the performances. Lesley Whetton and her parents, who are elderly, were among the first residents of Monroe Park. She said they expected occasional noise from special events downtown, but not four nights a week. Whetton said her parents are early to bed and early to rise -- and the music has disrupted their lives.

"It's gotten to the point where I hear my mother saying, "It's Wednesday. I hope it rains,' " Whetton said. "It's so loud they can't go to bed. . . . If we'd have known what we know now, we wouldn't have bought the house."

Most of the musicians who play at Purple Moon are from the Tampa Bay area and play folk, New Age and contemporary easy listening music, Stiver said. They play outside on the tiled patio on the south side of the building where typically 20 to 30 customers sit and order beer, wine or coffee.

Not everyone in Monroe Park dislikes the noise. Resident Cherie Stine, 34, said she loves it.

"It absolutely does not bother me," Stine said. "I'll be extremely displeased if the music stops. It's one of the best things about living there. I don't understand why people would move to a downtown area if they're disturbed by noise."

Her neighbor, City Manager John Lawrence, agrees. He said he has heard the music from his townhouse in the past and enjoys it. But, he added, Stiver and Avila have turned it down.

"If you want total peace and quiet, move to Pasco County," Lawrence said. "I personally want that kind of liveliness."

When Purple Moon first opened, the musicians were stationed close to Douglas Avenue so they could be noticed from Main Street, Stiver said.

"Initially, we needed to make some noise," Stiver said.

When the owners first heard about the residents' complaints last summer, Stiver said, "we probably didn't act quickly enough."

"We started thinking of ways to block the noise," she said. "We didn't do anything for a while. We really kind of thought it wasn't that big of a deal."

In November when Purple Moon was throwing a one-year anniversary party, someone called in a complaint to the Sheriff's Office and deputies ordered them to lower the music.

Since then, Stiver and Avila have erected the fence and moved the musicians so their speakers are facing away from the townhomes.

"We turned the volume way down," Stiver said. "We're trying to do things so it will work for everybody."

The neighbors say they don't want to shut down the music, just find a compromise so it doesn't dominate their evenings. Whetton said they should stop using the amplifiers or move the music inside.

"It's not the neighbors versus the merchants," Carey said. "I know what they're trying to do. They have a business, and it's not right on Main Street. They hope the music will filter out to Main Street and draw people. I don't have a problem with that, but figure out how to keep it from flowing into our homes."

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