City Counseling: If It's Too Loud, You're Too Old

Hey, what's that sound?

Just what the MP3 bloggerati and DayGlo apocalypse dudes are lining up around the block for at South by Southwest: sound ordinance revisions for outdoor live music venues!

Maybe not, but that was on the City Coun­cil's set list last meeting, Thursday, March 12. Part of the Live Music Task Force's efforts to drive a grand bargain between clubs and neighborhoods, the new ordinance creates an "accountable official" to oversee venue permitting, granting her (for now, Assistant City Manager Sue Edwards) latitude to approve or deny permits for outdoor venues based on several requirements: the venue's size and capacity, the proximity of the place to its neighbors and what they are, any sound mitigating devices the venue may include (walls, architectural or landscaping considerations), any history of noise complaints stemming from the place, and potential additional limitations on the hours the music plays. It grants the official the ability to "mitigate adverse negative impacts" by imposing additional regulations on the venue if need be. Permit decisions should also not be issued later than two weeks after the request.

A subsection regarding music permits for restaurants cranked up controversy. Güero's owner Rob Lippincott – who, with his 2001 opposition to light rail and more recently, the infamous Las Manitas loan, is quite comfortable kvetching before council – addressed the onus the ordinance places on his popular South Congress taco bar. While the ordinance would allow automatic approval for venues within restaurants, it's at a lower decibel limit than dedicated music venues – 70 decibels rather than 85.

That's not new in the ordinance; it's been existing code for years. Which means Lippincott has been in violation for years. Which means, in Lippincott's quasi-libertarian universe, this is somehow the council's fault. The council promised to work with Lippincott, serving up the inevitable platitudes – about Güero's being a great SoCo institution, etc. – like so many bowls of overpriced guacamole.

The biggest takeaway from the conversation was the further work the Live Music Task Force needs to perform in assuring the broader music community that nothing nefarious is afoot. To the less-than-casual political observer who flips past the Chronicle's News section to the Emo's listings, any ordinance change still registers as sinister. Said task force head and Momo's owner Paul Oveisi, "What a great illustration of a need for a music department to handle issues like this, because there's probably a dozen other venues that are scratching their heads right now and wondering whether they can be open for South by Southwest in light of all this." The answer, for now, looks to be a qualified yes.

Free Association

The other big ticket last week was approving an additional $841,860 for Phase Two of the Downtown Austin Plan, bringing consultants ROMA Austin's eventual haul to $1.4 million. With tight economic times – and the comprehensive plan for the entire city expected to come in for less – some on council questioned why we need to keep laying out cash to the well-connected firm. (For what it's worth, City Counseling would draw some crap on a map – er, I mean, compartmentalize existing urban quadrants into unique "districts" – for half the cost.) See "Developing Stories," p.22, for more.

Along with the rest of Austin, council is calling in with the South-by flu. After back-to-back-to-back meetings, it's taking its spring break this week, returning March 26.

See you at the showcase!