Turn Down The Music At Night, Says Red Bank

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By John Burton
RED BANK – The downtown commercial district and other areas of the borough may get a little quieter.
The Borough Council at its Aug. 10 meeting voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance that sets clearer parameters for noise control and disturbances in the borough.
Officials said the ordinance was intended to clarify some of the ambiguous language in the previous noise ordinance. “It clearly defines the time,” that local bars and restaurants have to curtail music that can be heard outside, as well as for other potentially noisy activities, explained Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels.
The ordinance requires “any place of public accommodation that plays music, whether prerecorded or live,” has to close all windows, doors and any other exterior broadcasting by 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. It does, however, allow the music to be played outside until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
This ordinance comes at a time when Gotham nightclub, 19 Broad St., faces a complaint in Municipal Court from a Broad Street resident charging the club has been excessively loud, blaring music through its open doors and windows late into the evening and early morning.
William Doehler is the resident and borough business owner who signed the complaint and will appear in court on Sept. 1 with the nightclub representatives for the charges. Doehler acknowledged he expects some noise living in a busy downtown area. “What is reasonable is reasonable,” he told Mayor Pasquale Menna and the borough council. “But what has happened up until now isn’t.”
“It’s a reasonable compromise,” Menna said of the ordinance that looks to strike a balance between the needs of businesses and to respect the quality of life of residents.
“If you move into a commercial district you’re going to have noise,” countered Anthony Barbero, who voiced his objections to the ordinance.
Barbero, who is chief operating officer of Industry, a glossing lifestyle magazine, told the governing body he is a member of “a group that owns six buildings” in the Broad/Front streets area, including the Gotham’s site. Barbero maintained that stifling business will negatively impact the downtown, especially driving the young adult crowd that frequent Gotham and other downtown nightspots to Long Branch or Asbury Park.
According to Barbero, Doehler’s was the only complaint and “My suggestion is you should move,” Barbero said.
“The downtown has been there a long time. It’s not going to change,” Barbero added, adding for the complainant’s benefit, “You move into a place and you expect the world to change.”
Sickels said there have been complaints regarding other locations, which was another reason the council took up revising the existing noise ordinance.
James Scavone, executive director of Red Bank RiverCenter, which manages and oversees the borough’s commercial Special Improvement District, like Menna and the council, supported the ordinance. “I do agree. I think it is a good compromise,” he said.
Scavone said he was particularly grateful that the council agreed to allow for the midnight cutoff for weekends. “We do want to keep the business community vibrant and alive.”
When Gotham appears in Municipal Court next month the club and landlord’s attorney, Mitchell Ansell, plans to continue to “adamantly deny these allegations. Adamantly.”
Ansell maintained the club is “operating legally until 2 o’clock in the morning,” and the complainant should have taken that into consideration before choosing that location to live.
“It’s almost as if he decided to rent an apartment next to an airport and then called the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to complain about planes flying over,” Ansell argued.
The newly authorized ordinance also regulates times for construction and demolition, limiting it to 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekdays and Saturdays, but allows some flexibility on Saturdays in cases concerning public health and safety. There is another provision preventing “the making of loud, excessive or disturbing noise,” resulting from the unloading of vehicles.