‘Entertainment district’ would change Sarasota noise ordinance
Published: Friday, December 7, 2012 at 7:19 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 7, 2012 at 7:19 p.m.
SARASOTA – For the first time in a decade, downtown condo dwellers and the musicians and business owners who work below them have banded together to change the city’s rules on outdoor music.
An “entertainment district” where music can be played louder and later into the night has the support of both sides, longtime antagonists in the incessant debate over how to define downtown.
In a city that is heavily dependent on tourism and markets itself as an arts and music center, the rules are blamed with shutting down music venues and even spawned the sarcastically-named Noise Ordinance music festival.
A small, powerful contingent of people who wanted a quieter downtown are credited with creating the regulations, which have pitted the old against the young.
“I think this is an example of few people controlling the destiny of the whole city,” said Commissioner Paul Caragiulo, who is organizing the conversation about noise.
There is a generation gap among the people who spend time downtown, but the young and old need to come together to talk about how to make a broadly-supported change, Downtown Sarasota Condo Association President Peter Fanning said.
“We want to keep the young people in our community, they’re our future,” Fanning said. “We need the vitality and the youth of the generations coming up and I don’t want them moving out of Sarasota because there’s nothing to do.”
Whether an entertainment district is created, and what the district would look like, will ultimately be up to the five city commissioners. Caragiulo says the groups hopefully will have a collaborative proposal to present to the commission by June.