On Sept. 15 the Buckhead Coalition sent a letter notifying Buckhead nightclubs that residents had complained about noise from nightlife, particularly outdoor events. It went on to note that historically too many patrons adversely affect the quality of life of the residents if not tightly controlled by enforcement of ordinances.
Buckhead Coalition president Sam Massell invited owners and managers to attend a meeting to be taught all the ordinance violations they could expect to have used against them.
The lecture occurred on Sept. 22. Besides Massell as moderator, members of Atlanta Licenses and Permits, Fire Department, Bureau of Buildings, and Special Events Office, Fulton County Health Department and Georgia State Patrol spoke about how their respective officers would enforce their area of the law and cite nightclubs for noncompliance.
I attended as the attorney for several nightclubs. Although the meeting was advertised as an open forum, members of the public were discouraged from participating. Comments supporting nightclubs’ right to coexist with residents were cut short. An Atlanta police lieutenant, who had worked within the area for years, made comments favorable to nightclubs only to be cut off before he could finish. When I suggested that residents with loud-music complaints should have a process whereby they contact the offending nightclub (through Buckhead Coalition, if helpful) and communicate with owners of clubs about ways to solve the problem, I was cut off.
I do not speak in support of a nightclub’s right to violate the noise ordinance by playing music loudly. Like Massell, I believe that residents have the right to a life free from loud music, but that is not what the Buckhead Coalition is talking about. They want to limit outside patrons from traveling to Buckhead nightclubs. The only way to do this is to put nightclubs out of business, including those that have been thriving businesses for over 50 years and cause no problems for residents. My belief is not just based on a hunch.
In or about September 2005, at the Buckhead Coalition’s urging, then-Mayor Bill Campbell sent alcohol license-renewal packages to nightclubs notifying them that they would be denied 2006 alcohol license renewals unless they submitted proof that they had secured a certain number of exclusive parking spaces. No nightclub had ever been required to have exclusive parking to get its original license or any renewal before. There were almost no exclusive parking spaces to be secured in Buckhead. It had the intention of putting all nightclubs out of business, even those that had never bothered anyone. Buckhead had become too popular with outside patrons.
In late 2005, I sued the city on behalf of several nightclubs to halt enforcement of the mayor’s edict. An injunction was issued and the edict was later abandoned.
The threat against outdoor festivals, for making noise, is also troubling. Outdoor festivals are the life blood of our city. They celebrate communities. They support charitable causes and the fundraising they desperately need. Outdoor festivals — Dogwood, Inman Park, Midtown Music, Pride, to name a few — celebrate art, music, dance and life itself.
The noise ordinance allows police officers to prosecute, without witnesses, corroboration or the presence of the nightclub owner if he or she says he/she plainly hears sounds from a certain distance. I think Buckhead nightclubs have reason to worry that the Buckhead Coalition is prepared to do what it did in 2005, namely use its political influence to get rid of the “high density of revelers” without regard to the pain it will cause its business residents.
Alan Begner is an Atlanta attorney.
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