Advocates for musicians, neighborhoods clash on proposed noise ordinance

By Anjali Patel

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — The city of Asheville hasn’t updated its noise ordinance in about 20 years, and the Asheville Music Professionals and the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods agree a new one is needed. But the two groups can’t seem to agree on what that new ordinance should look like.

Some noise concerns reported by residents in Asheville include construction, vehicle exhaust and engine revving and commercial and industrial equipment.

“It could be an auto repair place that runs until 12 o’clock at night. You know what it sounds like when they change the screws on a tire? Those things just wake everybody up,” CAN president Rick Freeman said.

Since 2019, Asheville city staff have been working on identifying such noise concerns and developing an ordinance to address them and set clear decibel thresholds, which the city’s longstanding noise ordinance does not include.

They’re getting close to presenting a new ordinance to city council following lots of discussion and input. But CAN isn’t happy about the latest changes made to the proposal by the city’s Public Safety Committee at its June 1 meeting. There, committee members made revisions that would set the daytime noise limit in Asheville’s Central Business District at 75 decibels and the nighttime limit at 70 decibels. Those limits are higher compared to what was previously proposed by city staff.

CAN members said the committee’s revisions set the limits too high, citing research from the World Health Organization about the potential negative effects of excessive noise on people’s health.

“We’ll go to city staff, leadership and explain our position and ask them to reconsider those high levels, because those are dangerous and unhealthy,” Freeman said.

CAN members also want the ordinance to set residential noise limits.

“There are none in the current ordinance,” Freeman said.

“It’s really about quality of life,” fellow CAN member Julie Snyder said.

One the other hand, AMP members said they are pleased with the committee’s revisions to the ordinance.

“We thank the folks on the public safety committee for hearing us, because we did think it needed to be loosened up from what staff proposed,” AMP board member and local musician Andrew Fletcher said.

Fletcher said AMP fully agrees with CAN and many other residents that stronger noise controls are needed — but not at the expense of Asheville’s vibrant music scene.

“If you want to solve the real noise problems in Asheville, you go after the noise makers, not the music makers,” Fletcher said.

CAN members said they’re not trying to target musicians by asking for more stringent noise controls.

“Basically, noise controls and music are compatible if you do it the right way,” Snyder said.

But Fletcher said they just want to make sure musicians don’t unintentionally become a casualty of this ordinance.

“We just want to make sure we’re not the baby that gets thrown out with the bathwater,” Fletcher said. “Getting a policy on noise and sound that works for everyone is about as hard as any policy I have ever worked on.”

The ordinance is set to go before Asheville City Council on June 22, though Fletcher said the vote could be postponed. The public safety committee has sent its latest revisions of the ordinance to council for consideration, though it’s unclear which version of the ordinance council will choose to vote on.

Whenever the new ordinance goes into effect, Fletcher and Freeman said there will be a six-month trial period, during which city staff will focus on educating people about the new rules and working with violators to reach a solution without penalties.

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