Officials Respond to Fine Arts Festival Noise Complaint As Noise Bill Heads Back To Council

As a bill that would amend noise restrictions in urban districts is set to be introduced at the Montgomery County Council Wednesday, Bethesda officials are responding to a complaint about loud music at the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival this past weekend.

Since last fall, there have been at the council to amend noise restrictions in urban districts. Some say current noise restrictions aren’t realistic for vibrant, urban downtowns like Bethesda that host a variety of popular outdoor festivals that boost the local economy. Currently, the county imposes a noise limit of 65 decibels during the day and 55 at night in residential areas.

The noise bill would waive the noise restriction for arts and entertainment activities that happen in “urban noise areas” within the urban districts–designated spaces that include outdoor parks, plazas and gathering places – as long as the noise level from the nearest boundary of the urban district doesn’t surpass 75 decibels. The increased noise limits for the arts and entertainment activities would be limited to 11a.m. to 11p.m.

The bill assumes that residents expect more noise in urban districts, where outdoor performances and festivals are a way of life. In Bethesda, popular festivals like the Taste of Bethesda and the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival draw visitors into the downtown to shop and eat, said Ken Hartman, director of the

But the bill also seeks to strike a sometimes delicate balance between relative peace and quiet for residents and the importance of supporting festivals that promote the downtown. The bill aims to “accommodate outdoor arts and entertainment activities in core urban areas in order to allow these events to reasonably occur while protecting the public health and welfare and allowing for the peaceful enjoyment of property.”

Sunday, a resident of the Triangle Towers residential complex in Bethesda formally filed a complaint about noise levels during the popular Bethesda Fine Arts Festival this past weekend, managed by the

“BUP had closed multiple streets within Bethesda's Woodmont Triangle for this festival, and none of those blocks had apartment homes except for the area where they located their entertainment stage,” wrote resident Amy Doll in a May 16 letter to Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1). “On Del Ray Avenue, literally right under my apartment windows, BUP's entertainment stage had around a half dozen commercial size amplifiers that played high-volume music during the lengthy period on Saturday and Sunday.”

Doll wrote that the noise was “unbearable” inside her apartment for much of the weekend-long festival. “After returning home around 4p.m., I found the band playing then had a full drum set and trumpets, electric guitars, and vocals that were at such a high volume I had to insert ear plugs because it was painfully loud inside my apartment," Doll wrote.

Hartman said there was a problem with the band being too loud and that officials are looking into ways to lessen impacts on residents at subsequent festivals. Stephanie Coppula, a spokeswoman for the Bethesda Urban Partnership, said, “Any complaint we get about too much noise or things not being correctly laid out we take all of that into consideration as we make plans for next year.”

The complaint may illustrate the challenge in continuing to promote the popular festivals while at the same time responding to citizens’ concerns about noise, especially as planned residential developments begin to come online in the Woodmont Triangle, Hartman said.

“The bill is not going to take away anyone’s recourse to work with the regional services center or our partners when there are problems, and when there are problems like this, we take them very seriously,” Hartman said.

The bill also allows for urban noise areas to be designated outside of urban districts.

The noise restriction amendments for urban districts was initially lumped into a bill that would have also sought to amend outdoor noise limits near performance venues like the Strathmore, but the two issues have been severed into two separate bills. The second bill, focusing on performance venues, is also set to be introduced at the council Wednesday.

A public hearing on the noise bill for urban districts has been set for June 14 at 1:30p.m.