A new Solvang ordinance will require downtown businesses that host live music (whether indoors or outdoors) to apply for a conditional use permit. Intended for venues that provide music on a regular basis, the ordinance will not enforce limits on buskers performing in public spaces.
“Because the proposed ordinance is tied to existing business uses, someone who’s busking wouldn’t be attached to an existing business typically,” City Attorney Dave Fleishman said during the Sept. 27 City Council meeting.
Fleishman added that buskers “would be covered by different provisions of the municipal code.”
Solvang City Council members agreed to adopt the ordinance as part of the Sept. 27 consent agenda, and heard the first reading of it during the Sept. 13 meeting.
“In our review of issues related to code enforcement over the last year or so, we determined that there was a need to have some allowance for businesses in the TRC [Tourism-Related Commercial District] to have the ability to play music indoors and outdoors at their establishments,” Fleishman said. “The best way to address that on a case-by-case basis is to allow it by conditional use permit.”
After a business applies for the music permit, the Planning Commission will “make certain findings as to whether or not the conditional use would be allowed,” Fleishman told City Council members on Sept. 13.
Fleishman added that once a property gets the permit, it will not be required to reapply on an “event-by-event basis,” although permits can be revoked if violated. One condition of the permit is that music “will not disturb the peace and comfort of the neighborhood,” which Fleishman said was “fairly well defined” despite how vague it might sound.
“It’s not an individual’s subjective standard of noise, it’s a community-based standard,” Fleishman said. “If the Planning Commission makes a determination that for whatever reason a business is operating outside the bounds of its conditional use permit, then it can be revoked without having to go out on a code enforcement basis with a noise meter and prove it beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal case.”
During the Sept. 13 meeting, Mayor Charlie Uhrig expressed his concern that the ordinance might open “a can of worms” about noise pollution. Uhrig said he fears that allowing all downtown businesses to apply for the permit could lead to too much amplified music outdoors.
Fleishman explained that the Planning Commission’s approval process would prevent that from happening.
“Well, I think that’s what the Planning Commission would be examining,” Fleishman said. “They need to make a finding under the ordinance that the nature, scale, and operating characteristics of the musical entertainment is compatible with existing and future land uses in the vicinity of the use where the musical entertainment is going, and that’s what the conditional use permit is for.”
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 7, 2021.
