Page 9 - the NOISE September 2013

that becomes violent.”
Marn Davis, property manager for the
plaza that contains the Martini Bar and its outdoor performance area, talked about the staging there of last year’s highly successful music and arts event, Gumptionfest. “There were many dedicated people that wanted the event to happen. The first thing that came up for the business owners is the noise problem.
“These guys went out of their way and at extra expense put up sound barriers all over the place. They got a system in that moni- tored the levels the whole time. I saw a group of people do something and made it happen. And as I understand, we got only one com- plaint during the festival and they talked to that person and it was resolved. People put a lot of effort into that event to make sure the people that lived nearby would not be adversely affected.”
Devin Terreson, a local business owner who specializes in sound-proofing said that “Sedona doesn’t have a noise problem, it has a technology problem.” He worked with the organizers of Gumptionfest last year to
install sound baffling and monitoring equip- ment that helped the event go off without a hitch.
Praising Gumptionfest, Ms. Perry added that “this is a tourist town. We live and eat because of the tourists. If that goes away be- cause we have no art and no entertainment and nothing to offer and people are being stifled by ordinances about what they can do and what they can’t do, the tourists aren’t going to come here. They’ll come to see the beautiful rocks and hike for two hours and then they’ll go – they’ll go to Jerome and Cot- tonwood where they can find entertainment.”
Ms. Paster expressed concern that some people think homeowners should just “get over it or move.” She said, “I’ve been here 25 years. I’m not saying no music or not in my backyard. I’ve lived with all kinds of inconve- niences in my life. But if Gumptionfest was managed so beautifully, I don’t understand why it can’t be that way all the time.”
Grabbing the opportunity to move the meeting forward into ideas on how to solve the problems that had been expressed, Mr. Snyder summarized his view of the meeting thus far. “I didn’t hear anybody draw a line in the sand or say that they won’t work on a solution,” he said. “That’s good for working together. Everyone has a right to be heard and considered. Everyone’s going to have to give a little. And that includes the city.
“We want to work with all of you to reach some level of compromise. So what role should the city take? We can take the en- forcement role, that’s the role that we have historically taken but that’s the chasing the tail role. In that role, we’ll always end up dis- appointing someone. And that’s not the role we think we should be playing. We want to work in partnership with you and help you work together.” He then introduced the con- cept of a Good Neighbor Agreement.
In a draft copy provided by Mr. Snyder it states: “A Good Neighbor Agreement is a tool that provides property owners, busi- nesses, community residents and the City of Sedona an opportunity to mutually acknowl- edge the need to build a relationship respon- sive to the needs of each group. Agreements can be formally negotiated, though remain voluntary and without legally binding lan- guage.” In other words, a Good Neighbor Agreement is not enforceable nor is it a legal contract. It is simply a document that identi- fies a process for resolving the issue at hand.
Mr. Snyder asked for volunteers to serve
on a working group to help develop solu- tions for noise compliance that would take all parties into account as much as possible. Many people expressed interest in serving on the working group and represented all aspects of the issue.
Since the July meeting, a group of 12 community members has met twice with Mr. Snyder to continue the dialogue about solutions. The Good Neighbor Agreement is only one possibility that is being explored by the group. “We are using that as an op- erable document,” Mr. Snyder said. “But we are taking an approach that respects every- one’s input and ideas.” Mr. Snyder expects the working group to convene once or twice more with the next meeting scheduled after the Labor Day holiday. He expects they will have some form of proposal to present to the community at large by late September or early October.
In addition, Mr. Snyder announced that the city had designated an employee to be trained as a code enforcement officer spe- cific to the noise ordinance. This employee is now made available during the evening and nighttime hours to follow up on noise com- plaints. The procedure was to work as fol- lows: upon receiving a noise complaint from a community resident, the police would no- tify the designated city noise ordinance offi- cer; the city employee would deploy to the venue in question with a decibel meter and measure noise levels where the commercial and residential property lines adjoin; if noise levels are found to be in compliance with the city ordinance, the police would be notified that no law is being violated; if not, the city employee would work with the venue and its performers to bring the sound down to a legal level.
Also since the July meeting, the code en- forcement officer was deployed twice to ven- ues following noise complaints to the police. In both cases, the venues were found to be in compliance and the police were notified that the noise ordinance was not being broken. It is the city’s intention to make this employee available during the late night hours from May through September when outdoor mu- sic venues are in full swing.
Several other suggestions were recorded as possible solutions to the noise issue in Sedona. They included: that anonymous complaints should not be responded to; that the city should work with businesses to add sound baffling where needed including pro- viding funds and establishing the issue as a city priority; that the sound ordinance may need to be changed to adjust the compli- ance hours or to raise the acceptable decibel levels at commercial/residential borders; and that all interested parties could become better educated about the noise standards. In addition, it was mentioned that perhaps the city should better screen changes to sites that may eliminate natural sound barri- ers. A recent change at the Old Marketplace removed a line of trees that may have been serving as natural sound buffer.
Overall, the meeting was well conducted and appears to have been productive in initi- ating a new approach to resolving this old is- sue for Sedona. Long-time Sedona resident Daniel Holland said, “This is part of living in a place that’s a jewel of the world. We all chose to live here and life’s not perfect — there are still mosquitos in paradise.”
| Cindy J. Cole makes no bones of this summer’s mosquitos. cindycole@live.com
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thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news
• september 2013 • 9