Members of the Charlottesville community met with City Planning Director Jim Tolbert Tuesday to voice their concerns about renewed enforcement of a law requiring restaurant and venue owners to obtain a permit to host live music.
A zoning code passed in 2003 requires all local restaurants and venues that want to have live, amplified music to purchase either a special use or provisional permit. A special use permit, which does not expire, can be purchased for $1,500. A provisional permit, which costs $100, can be revoked at any time for occupancy or sound ordinance violations.
This law was not enforced until it came to light last year when a noise ordinance was passed in Belmont, a neighborhood in the southeast corner of the City, fueling subsequent debates about venues in Charlottesville.
Jacob Wolf, local musician and owner of Holy Smokes Booking, said the problem began about a year ago in Belmont. Bel Rio, a restaurant in the City that often hosted live music, received numerous noise violations. As a noise ordinance was being negotiated, it became clear that Bel Rio, like many other venues in the area, did not possess the necessary permit.
Officials are now forced to come up with a solution that allows big and small businesses to obtain the necessary permits to meet the requirements of this ignored law, while responding to the concerns of neighbors.
"I think that it is pretty ludicrous to try to penalize or enforce rules on people who have been doing what they have been doing for years," Wolf said. "It seems pretty silly that this is even happening at all. But if we do go ahead and change the zoning codes, everyone will be legal, and we won't have this problem in the future."
Wolf added that it has become clear that four venues in Charlottesville do hold the necessary permits. One establishment complained to City Council about the inconsistent law, sparking the debate about reviving it.
Wolf said he informed City Council during a Jan. 11 meeting that he had received a call from a venue that had gone through the necessary process to obtain the legal documents. Tolbert said the venue operator asked, "Why did I have to pay my $1,500, go through a public hearing process, be subject to maybe getting open and maybe not getting open, and I've got a competitor down here who you're not even regulating, not doing anything with?"
Tolbert said he responded to the complaint by saying he and his colleagues were working to figure out the best course of action.
"One option is to make all those places go through the process like everybody else did and get a special use permit," Tolbert said.
Tolbert met with concerned members of the community Tuesday to propose his solution.
Before the meeting, local artist James Ford posted to the Charlottesville local music blog, Nailgunmedia, to ask supporters to attend the meeting.
"The Good News is that Jim Tolbert and the City Council don't seem to want to shut down any existing venues; they've just realized that there is a huge discrepancy between what the letter-of-the-law is, and the actual desires of the community," Ford said in the post. "So they're looking for as much input as they can before re-writing the zoning code."
Wolf attended the Tuesday meeting and heard Tolbert offer his revised plan. Wolf said he was pleased that Tolbert's proposal would allow most businesses to host live music.
"Belmont would be excluded from that, and there are a lot of Belmont residents and business owners who are very upset about that and gave him a lot of feedback," Wolf said.
City Spokesperson Ric Barrick is hopeful that the city and residents will come to an agreement.
"Ideally Mr. Tolbert wants to reach a compromise that works for musicians and businesses but also works for neighborhoods," Barrick said.
Many local musicians are voicing their support for finding a reasonable compromise.
"As a musician myself, I am all for finding a way where all businesses, whether restaurants or music venues, host music and they are doing so safely and in a way that isn't bothering anybody," said Andrew Cedermark, musician and C-ville Weekly arts editor. "And I think the meeting yesterday brought us all a little closer to that goal."
The next meeting with the City planning commission is scheduled for March 8 in City Hall. Four of the seven commission members must vote in favor of the proposal for it to pass.
Wolf encourages students to attend the upcoming forum.
"We have heard from music and business owners but we really haven't heard from the U.Va. community," Wolf said. "It really does affect everyone over there too, and it would be valuable if they showed up to support. It would be really appreciated"
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