Music Commission approves revised ‘agent of change’ measures to calm noise disputes

The city appears ready to codify measures meant to prevent noise issues from creating friction with residential developments and live music venues, nearly a decade after the conflict first received heavy attention.

At Monday’s meeting, the Music Commission approved requirements offered by the Development Services Department that would make developers of new projects within 600 feet of venues with an outdoor music permit conduct sound testing during a performance to measure the potential impact of noise in their residential units. That information would then be required to be included in purchase or leasing documents for eventual residents as part of the city’s development review process.

If the ordinance change is adopted by City Council in late May as expected, the requirements would place no new burdens on live music venues located near new developments. Developers would be left to make the decision on what level of soundproofing they would need to build in to their projects, with the disclosure requirement intended to allow residents or buyers to negotiate their terms with ownership based on the possibility of noise issues.

With development pressure causing hotels and residential towers to locate closer to entertainment districts over the past decade-plus, the city initially sought to address the conflict over noise complaints using an “agent of change” concept that made the new entrant into an area responsible for mitigating the impact of high volume levels.

That approach floundered mainly over concerns that requiring building standards related to noise mitigation could be challenged in court, with City Council last taking action related to the matter in 2018. There was another push for final action in 2019 and 2020 that stalled, with a late March public hearing representing the first significant city activity on the matter since then.

An online meeting today will inform the public about the proposed changes and allow people to offer thoughts, with more presentations to local boards and commissions coming ahead of the May 30 meeting, at which City Council will consider the ordinance amendment.

Brian Block, entertainment services manager for the Development Services Department, noted that the lack of a staff review on the sound study that developers submit for approval is intended to make the process as hands-off as possible.

“The intent is to kind of have as light a touch as possible on the development review process, especially with housing affordability and housing supply being such a big issue,” he said, noting that the city’s mapping tool makes it easy to identify addresses that fall within proximity to a venue that would trigger the need for a sound study. “The intent is to make an important impactful improvement and kind of limit any impact on the development review process.”

In response to a question about how closely the proposed requirements are tied to what was proposed under the agent of change effort, Block said the new approach removes any need for music venues to reduce or alter their sound beyond what is already considered legal under the city’s noise ordinances.

“This doesn’t require anything of the venue, so it doesn’t go both ways,” he said. “We have a very robust entertainment-related sound management system, so we think that that’s already taking place, where that’s customized in context that is sensitive and appropriate and built on a policy foundation that goes back really to 2002 and 2003, where the City Council ensured we had policy that allowed live music and outdoor live music, but set some time cutoffs as kind of a balancing act.”

Commissioner Pedro Carvalho, also an owner of the Far Out Lounge outdoor music venue in South Austin, called the proposed requirements “a no-brainer” and said he hopes they will lead to more city policies intended to ease relations between clubs and nearby residences.

“My hope is that this eventually becomes a step forward towards a much longer runway of fixing the relationships between local residents and music venues,” Carvalho said. “I love the idea. It’s just purely informative to the people, to the residents and to builders and to music venues in the area. It’s a good step towards a much more prosperous future in music and the music ecosystem in town.”

Photo by Nash Cook, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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