Austin City Council tried to balance preserving the $1.6 billion music industry in the city with residential complaints over sound levels by looking at sound dampening practices at the Aug. 22 meeting. Council approved creating a permanent Music Venue Assistance Program—a loan program that helps music venues implement sound mitigation equipment—and creating a penalty for venues that violate amplified sound requirements. However, council voted against amending the city's building code.
"The core issue is compatibility between the residential and the redevelopment of downtown and the outdoor music venues," said Kevin Johns, director of Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services with the city of Austin.
Johns said the three items council took action on were aimed at addressing sound levels in three ways—the source of the sound, the path the sound travels into residential communities and how the residential areas deal with incoming sound.
David Murray, music program manager with the city of Austin Music Division, said the MVAP was established in 2012 as a pilot program. The program loans money for equipment such as directional speakers, trussing for mounting speakers and sound enclosures to help venues reduce sound volume. The city's music staff expects to have the average loan amount be about $10,000 to $20,000 with an interest rate of 0.81 percent over a one to three year period.
Will McLeod, a regular speaker at Austin City Council, said he opposed the loan program because he felt the city "is not a bank" and does not believe the city should be lending money.
Another aspect council approved was outlining a set of best practices for music venues and penalties for venues that do not follow city requirements. The planning and development review department now has the ability to suspend and revoke sound permits for businesses with repeated violations. If a sound permit is revoked, the business would not be allowed another permit for at least six months.
Greg Guernsey, director of PDRD, said the city previously did not have provisions in the code that outlined penalties for businesses with sound permits that did not follow the restrictions.
The ordinance city council voted down would have required windows on buildings five stories or taller to be double-paned. City staff estimated a 1 to 3 percent increase in construction costs if the building code amendment was adopted.
Larry Graham, chairman of the board of the Downtown Austin Alliance, said urged the council not to support the ordinance because the double-pane glass does not effectively dampen sound in low frequencies.
"Without addressing this glaring oversight, we're not doing anything to help the 10,000 people that currently live in downtown or the 6,000 nightly hotel guests," Graham said.
City staff said there are currently about 10,400 people living in downtown and that number is expected to increase to about 16,000 people by 2020.
Leon Barba, building official with the Planning and Development Review Department, said through stakeholder meetings, there was no clear solution to the problem dampening sound through building practices. He said the best option they settled on was the requirement for double-pane windows.
"It was the simplest, the easiest and the one-size-fits-all [option]," Barba said.
Annie Armburst, director of public relations with the Real Estate Council of Austin, said RECA members have been part of the stakeholder process, stressed that there was not an effective, single change the city could make to help reduce sound volume through the building code.
"After looking at this issue [with] different projects and different sites, there just isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the complexity of sound that can really be addressed through one, single change," Armburst said.
Councilman Mike Martinez said he would rather support a more nuanced approach to amending the city's building code rather than with a blanket requirement.
"I feel like we can do better than just saying 'let's double-pane this thing all the way up to the 50th floor," Martinez said.
