Outcry Over New Noise Laws
Loud music, boisterous nightclub-hoppers, and rowdy neighbors can turn summer in East Hampton into a big headache if it's peace and quiet you want.
Last week, bothered residents logged 24 noise complaints with the East Hampton Town Police Department, most of them over the weekend. The week before, there were 33 noise complaints, again during the busiest hours of the department's busiest days.
Residents and business owners near loud establishments claim the complaints are getting them nowhere and that little is done to enforce the noise ordinance.
Hard To Enforce
On summer weekends, when there are so many emergency calls to be dealt with, Town Police Chief Thomas Scott admits noise complaints get a lower priority. Also, the chief said, the current noise ordinance, which in part bases violations on decibel level, is difficult to enforce because so much of it can be subjective.
What may be music to one person's ears can be anything but, to someone else's.
However, proposed changes in the law intended to create stricter noise regulations for business establishments may actually put more of a burden on residents seeking quiet, many said at a public hearing last Thursday.
Most who spoke during the nearly four-hour hearing supported further regulations to keep noise-makers in check, but disagreed with what was being proposed.
Close The Bedroom Door
The changes, among other things, call for two separate officers to determine on two separate occasions whether noise from nearby houses or commercial establishments is audible from inside a complainant's bedroom with its windows and doors closed, before issuing a warning to the violator.
What may be music to one person's ears can be anything but, to someone else's.
This, said Chief Scott, will only add to enforcement problems. Whether they're East Hampton's finest or not, few people are eager to invite police or code enforcement officers into their houses, much less their sleeping quarters, between midnight and 7 a.m. to listen for noise from a nearby house or business.
That provision of the suggested regulations was the one that concerned Chief Scott the most and rankled residents and business owners at the hearing.
Can You Hear It?
John Thompson, a Montauk resident, called it "an invasion of privacy."
"Why do we have to go inside and close our windows when [keeping noise down] should be the responsibility of the business?" Jean Fischer, also of Montauk, asked the board.
The extra provisions seem more designed to limit interpretation of the law and make it easier to follow through and prosecute chronic violators.
The deputy town attorney, Richard Whalen, explained that the new regulations would be in addition to the existing ones.
Mr. Whalen pointed out that the extra provisions say "audible, that's all. Can you hear it? Not, was it disturbing to you, or how loud was it."
Windows and doors are required to be closed, he said, "so something trivial isn't the basis of a violation." Verification of the noise by two separate officers would provide further protections to insure the citations would hold up in court.
Bedroom Noise
"What we were trying to do is create a small envelope in the darkest, wee hours of the night in your home and say, thou shalt not violate," explained Russell Stein, a former town attorney who helped draft the additions to the law.
The bedroom noise provision would apply not only to private houses but to apartments and motels as well.
In fact, many of those who complained of excessive noise at the hearing were Montauk hotel and motel owners and many of their complaints had to do with restaurants that offer music and dancing after hours without the proper permits.
After 11, Thump, Thump
"I've had too many people tell me that they can't come back to the Lido Motel," said William Lydon, its owner and operator. "There are wonderful restaurants near the Lido until 11 p.m.," he said, but after that, "they play music that seems to be nothing but a thump, thump, thump, thump until 2 in the morning."
The fines those places are required to pay - up to $250 for the first offense currently, but up to $350 for the first offense if the law were changed - are hardly a real deterrent, Mr. Lydon said. "They pay more money to remove bottles in the morning."
Prospective guests tell Lisa Issing, the owner of the Malibu Motel, that if she doesn't have rooms "on the quiet side" they won't be coming at all.
Motel Owners Protest
Noise from nearby nightclubs and restaurants with late-night music has cost her several customers over the past few years, said Ms. Issing. When her customers are awakened late at night by loud music or other noise, she only hears about it the next morning when they check out early to find a quieter place.
"The noise ordinance doesn't work," she said, and the changes, she added, aren't clear enough.
"We have a serious enforcement problem in Montauk," said James Daunt, the manager of the Albatross Motel. He said there are nightclubs on both sides of his motel and that late-night raucousness has almost put him out of business.
"Nothing says the restaurant or nightclub needs to keep their windows closed."
Soundproofing?
Ms. Issing agreed. Her biggest criticism of the noise law was that "there's no standard of self-policing."
What about soundproofing? What about doormen to keep patrons in check, or keeping windows closed to keep the noise in? Mr. Daunt and other motel owners and residents asked.
Robert Scheiner, the general manager of the Montauk Yacht Club said there were already too many ordinances restricting business activity. "Let's all remember this is a resort community," Mr. Scheiner said.
"This town is not necessarily run for the benefit of tourists," Marshall Helfand, the owner of the Deep Sea Marina, responded. "If I want my register to ring, residents nearby should not have to hear that ring . . . You can't say, well, the tourists are here so let's just crawl into our holes for the next three months."
To Reconvene
Many residents said a cap should be put on noise at all hours and that in purely residential areas violators should be treated more strictly.
Edward Kenny, the owner of Kenny's Tipperary Inn in Montauk, offers live music there seven nights a week, but said he hasn't had a complaint in 30 years. His place is soundproofed and the doors are kept closed.
"I don't want this to be jeopardized because a few people are running their business irresponsibly," said Mr. Kenny.
With so many concerns about the new law, the Town Board decided to ask the committee that helped draft the changes to reconvene. Councilman Thomas Knobel suggested the changes could be rewritten to focus more on the source of the noise.
Accessory Uses
The town tried to address the noise issue earlier this year, proposing a midnight curfew on musical entertainment and dancing. Nightclub owners, resort managers, and restaurateurs spoke unanimously against the "Cinderella" law.
Town officials noted then that those restaurants offering music and dancing after hours were, in fact, doing so in violation of the Town Code.
A proposal to change the code to allow music, dancing, and catered events as an accessory use at restaurants was also discussed last Thursday night. The amendment would make it legal for restaurants to offer these amenities, but not for a cover charge and not as a primary use.
The cover charge is one of the few concrete yardsticks the town can apply to distinguish a restaurant from a nightclub. "Otherwise, you would have no distinction," Mr. Whalen said.
"Bad Apples"
"The reason this all came up was, because the way the code is, restaurants can't have any music at all," Councilman Peter Hammerle said. "The chronic violators are spoiling it for everyone else."
"This paints a wide brush over everyone that owns a restaurant," said Tom Miln of the Surfside Inn on Old Montauk Highway. He claims he runs his business with consideration for his neighbors and would be out of business if he didn't.
To prohibit music and dancing in restaurants would punish those operating responsibly for the deeds of the irresponsible, he said. "We're all going to be painted with the same stripe."
"It is the few bad apples," agreed Bill Akin, president of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk. "I find it unbelievable we cannot find a way to shut these places up."
Chambers In Favor
Richard Kahn said the perception in Montauk was that the Town Board is not serious about code enforcement. This only encourages more people not to follow the code, he said.
Several residents feared that if restrictions on music and dancing in restaurants were eased noise problems would increase. Representatives from the Montauk and East Hampton Chambers of Commerce both spoke in favor of the code change and of the noise law.
Because many restaurateurs were unable to attend the meeting, the Town Board will continue the restaurant hearing on Friday, Aug. 1, at 10:30 a.m.