Clarifying the Noise Ordinance for Deep Ellum is a good idea. The pursuit of rest is not.
Conflict has risen in recent months as the city stepped up enforcement of its noise ordinance. According to the newspaper, there have been nearly 250 chronic noise complaints since last October in City Council District 2, which includes Deep Ellum. Most of the complaints are related to music, city officials said.
Carl Simpson, director of Code Compliance Services, said his department is handling noise complaints that were previously handled by police.
Entrepreneurs collected 6,285 signatures for a petition entitled “Don’t Silence Deep Ellum”.
Two trends are fueling the conflict. First, Deep Ellum will reopen. After months of eerily quiet streets, the crowds and music are returning. Second, there are more neighbors in the area – more offices, more apartments – and many of them have arrived in the last 18 months when the area was quiet.
It is true that the neighbors in Deep Ellum should be able to live there without excessive noise. Neighbors just want to sleep well. That’s not asking too much.
But it’s also true that living in Deep Ellum should be a different experience than, say, Lakewood. The former is an entertainment district. It should be loud.
The current Noise Ordinance prohibits noises that “offend normal perception”, but a reasonable person will adapt these perceptions to his surroundings. Neighbors in Deep Ellum shouldn’t expect their evenings to be full of serenity and cicadas. They chose to live next to bars and tattoo parlors, not green belts and corn fields.
City Councilor Jesse Moreno, who represents District 2, has set up a task force to seek feedback on the issue from residents, business owners and code enforcement. A recommendation from this body is expected shortly.
In our view, there are two simple steps that can go a long way here.
First, the city should set an objective standard for how loud too loud is – a decibel limit. This is exactly what entrepreneurs want. They complain that the current standard of “common sensibility” leaves matters to the whim of the code enforcement officer who shows up on the scene.
Second, the city should define boundaries for entertainment areas like Deep Ellum and set the decibel limit higher for those neighborhoods. Simpson told us that the Noise Ordinance currently applies equally to all neighborhoods and that he does not want to take his officers to a place where they are guilty of “selective enforcement”. That’s how it should be. But the city council should take this decision out of Simpson’s hands and create clear expectations for different parts of the city.
In addition, the city has to find a process that allows neighborhoods like Deep Ellum to develop. Maybe that means they’ll get quieter or louder over time.
Places change, but we also have to respect what came first.
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