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Charlotte leaders look to address city's noise ordinance

By Briana Harper
By Briana Harper

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Weekends are busy in uptown Charlotte as people walk the streets, going to restaurants and bars.

Large crowds can bring a lot of noise for people who live in uptown.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said it can take up to an hour to respond to one noise complaint and measure just how loud the music is blaring.

[Officers responding to noise complaint end up in dance-off with kids]

City leaders are considering changing a noise ordinance that many believe Charlotte has grown out of.

City leaders agree now is different from the Queen City they knew nearly 20 years ago.

“Nobody would go uptown at night because there was nothing to do,” council member Julie Eiselt said.

"The realities of who we are, are different, so we have to adjust,” council member Braxton Winston said.

Some city leaders said the adjustment starts with revising the city's noise ordinance for the first time in seven years.

CMPD said just within the last year, they've responded to more than 680 noise complaints in the central district, the same area where the club and restaurant Ink and Ivy is located.

Ink and Ivy’s corporate marketing director told Channel 9 they do their part to help stay within regulations by having their own noise meters at the site.

The city is now considering creating possible entertainment districts and also studying how other major cities manage nightlife.

"We want to be a 24-hour city where there is stuff going on all the time, a destination city where people are buying plane tickets from different countries and states to come stay here,” Winston said.

Some council members said they also want to make sure uptown buildings are constructed with noise in mind.

"We've got to look at our building standards and make sure people know if they're going to build in high-density areas they might have noise, so they might need to put that in their construction project as a way to buffer that,” Eiselt said.

Hotels in the EpiCentre are already addressing the noise by offering guests earplugs and noise canceling drapery.

Charlotte leaders said they are studies what cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, are doing to handle 24-hour nightlife.

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