Bel Air owners, neighbors, city staff to meet to find noise solution

Neighbors of the Bel Air Bar & Grill disturbed by bands playing outside on weekend nights will be meeting with the bar's owners and city officials to try to hash out a solution that Cape Girardeau City Council members hope will protect resident rights without hindering economic growth.

At an at-times heated study session Tuesday evening at city hall, the council heard from both sides, with the neighbors saying the bands are playing too loud and too late in the evening and Bel Air owner Misty Thrower's repeated response that she's just trying to run a business.

The council directed city staff to meet with Thrower and the neighbors to try to find common ground that allows both to exist. But not before both sides had their say.

Downtown business owner Dave Hutson said the city should be promoting economic growth and not causing it to stall. Hutson also presented signatures to the council and said many downtown residents also support Bel Air, 24 S. Spanish St.

"It's not a Bel Air issue," he said. "It's a downtown district issue. If it's necessary to change something, it needs to be changed so we can all get along and prosper in the area."

Hutson said perhaps the noise ordinance should be revised. The noise ordinance as written says music should not be heard further than 50 feet from where the music originates from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

"Who's to say it shouldn't be 150 feet?" Hutson said. "Maybe it should be 12:30 to 6. It's not an easy thing to figure out. It's going to take a lot of work and a lot of planning. We just want to keep getting people to come down and enjoy the area and invest in it."

Downtown business owner Judith Lang called it a neighborhood problem. Lang collected signatures of more than 20 residents, originally asking the city to outlaw outdoor music performances without a special-use permit. Now she just wants a peaceful home again.

"We're trying to build a neighborhood," Lang said. "This has been going on for several years. I live three blocks from the Bel Air, and the police won't do anything about it. The ordinance is not being enforced. They are really not being neighborly. Nobody wants to do away with music outside. We all love it. It's the level of the music being played."

Thrower said she has made adjustments, including stopping bands at midnight and no longer having karaoke on Thursday nights. Both of those moves have cost her money.

"We no longer have to kick people out when it's time to close," she said. "There's nobody there to kick out. ... I'm not trying to be a nuisance. I'm just a business owner as well, trying to protect the investment I made downtown."

Some of Bel Air's backers took their support to the Web. On Tuesday morning, Tyson Glaser started a Facebook page called "Leave the Bel Air Alone." By 11 p.m., 493 people had become fans of the page. Glaser, who lives downtown, said it was his way of showing that not everyone who lives there is opposed to outdoor music.

"This is a college town," he said. "The Bel Air is one of my favorite places. What's being done to them is outrageous."

Mayor Harry Rediger said at the meeting that he hopes the meetings between Thrower, city staff and residents leads to an agreeable resolution for all sides. The meetings are a step forward, he said.

"All I'm concerned about is that we come up with something that will promote both residential and commercial growth in our downtown area," he said.

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent Address:

401 Independence St, Cape Girardeau, MO

24 S. Spanish St., Cape Girardeau, MO