Hard Truth Hills neighbors want noise ordinance enforced

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In Nashville, it is against local ordinance for sound to be heard 25 feet from the property line where it’s originating.

The rules are the same whether those sounds are dogs barking, engines running or musicians playing, if someone considers them to be a nuisance.

Four town residents approached the Nashville Town Council Thursday night about enforcing the noise ordinance on Hard Truth Hills.

All of them said that the music coming from the outdoor stage at the restaurant/distillery is interfering with their ability to enjoy the outdoors at their homes or to sleep soundly, even with the windows up and the air running.

Since May 1, the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department has received seven calls about noise coming from Hard Truth Hills, and three of them have been about noise after 10 p.m., said Chief of Police Ben Seastrom.

Keith Baker lives on Greasy Creek Road near the sprawling Hard Truth Hills Property on Old State Road 46. He told the council he’s unable to sit on his porch on Friday and Saturday nights because of constant bass thumping. It’s also interrupted his sleep, he said.

As a former member of the Brown County Council and Brown County Redevelopment Commission, Baker worked to help make this business happen. He called Hard Truth Hills “one of best things to happen to our community for business — and I still believe that today.” However, “I don’t see somebody (being able to) diminish my quality of life to make more money in their pocket for their business,” he said.

Baker also said the kind of music matters, because it wouldn’t be as much of a problem if it was bluegrass or acoustic rather than “heavy metal.”

“I want this to succeed,” he said about Hard Truth Hills. But if the management insists on playing that kind or volume of music until that time, he believes it should be moved inside.

Debby Rogers, one of Baker’s neighbors, said she’d called the Hard Truth Hills office and waited two months for them to fix the problem, then called in to ask them to turn down the music two more times before she decided to call police.

Her father was prolific Nashville businessman Andy Rogers, so she understands the importance of tourism on our economy, she said. “I also understand that there has to be a balance to consider residents as well as the business.”

Brandon Harris, who lives on Greasy Creek, said the music affects his young family’s bedtime. Sally Baldwin, who spends a lot of time at her fiance’s house on the first curve of Helmsburg Road, said when she sits on her porch on Friday and Saturday nights, she can’t hear the crickets like she can at her home in Yellowwood.

“I just think that there’s a lot of people here in Nashville that come for the quietness, and a lot of people rent homes or vacation homes or sit out on their decks at the Brown County Inn or The Seasons, and they don’t want to hear a lot of music,” Baldwin said. “They come here for quiet and the peaceful valley we have.”

Clay Kinnick, who spoke for Hard Truth Hills, said people shouldn’t jump to conclusions about what other people want to hear, whether that’s music, no music, or a specific kind of music.

He disputed the claims that loud thumping was coming from the property every Friday and Saturday night, and said that no “heavy metal” bands had been booked; it’s usually two people with guitars.

“I know that we have guitar duos, we have solo musicians, we do have bands, and people do enjoy bands. We’ve had soul music with trumpets. There’s been a very wide variety, so for people to speak who aren’t witness to this, or say they can hear it on Helmsburg Road and it’s us, I don’t know that that’s necessarily the case,” he said.

Kinnick said the venue has a self-imposed cutoff of 10 p.m. for outdoor music. When people call to complain about noise — and even when they don’t — a member of the management team regularly goes out on the patio where diners are seated to see if they can have a normal volume conversation and that servers and customers can hear each other. If they can’t, the band is asked to turn it down. He said he asks staff who take those complaint calls to get the caller’s name and number so he can follow up, but no one’s decided to give that information.

Rogers said that system hasn’t worked. “Last weekend I heard all the musical equipment, I heard the amplifiers, I heard the man’s voice, I heard the words the man was singing, and that was after I called them,” she said.

Back in January 2017, when the Brown County Area Plan Commission approved changing the zoning on this large, vacant land parcel to allow for Hard Truth Hills to be built, co-owner Ed Ryan told the crowd that building an amphitheater wasn’t in the plan. Multiple speakers, including Harris, Baker and town council member Nancy Crocker, brought up this past statement during the town council meeting.

Kinnick said he couldn’t speak for Ryan on that point, and he also wasn’t employed with the company back then, but “things change based on demand, and I think demand has pushed us to have music.”

Council President Jane Gore said Ryan was out of town at a business meeting with all of the other owners and that’s why he wasn’t present, but if neighbors had questions that Kinnick couldn’t answer, Ryan had told her he would come to a future meeting.

Chris Curtin, vice president of restaurant operations, asked two council members whom he’d seen on the patio during live music nights if they thought it was too loud. Both said it wasn’t too loud to them, but that wasn’t the point.

“I guarantee you, someone was probably sitting on their porch somewhere and it was too loud on that night,” Curtin said. “What you’re asking is that we basically don’t have any outdoor music.”

“I don’t think we’re asking that,” Gore said. “We want you to courteous to the public. We need some middle ground … because we don’t want to constantly have complaints.”

Gore stopped short of scheduling a meeting with Ryan to address the neighbors’ concerns now. She suggested that if problems continue, people call the Nashville police.

Curtin said that if the noise ordinance is going to be enforced, it should be enforced “100 percent across the board” on every business that violates it, “and not coming down on us … because other things also are in violation.”

The current noise ordinance was passed in the fall of 2012 after a group of residents approached the council initially about motorcycle noise. However, a noise ordinance in some form had been on the books for Nashville since the 1970s. The county at large has no noise ordinance.

The owners of Hard Truth Hills, who also own Big Woods restaurants in downtown Nashville, ran into conflicts with neighbors at their original restaurant because of amplified music, and in 2013, canceled a planned Rally in the Alley downtown because of “continually more restrictive” rules about noise. The current noise ordinance does allow a special event permit, which can carry different rules than those stated in the ordinance.

In order for action to be taken under the town noise ordinance, people who have complaints must report them to the town police and leave their name, address and phone number, said Town Attorney James T. Roberts. If the source of that noise continues after the maker is told by police to stop or turn it down, a violation may occur. Fines start at $50.

Seastrom said he’d been told by former town council members not to enforce the noise ordinance because there were “major problems” with it. Roberts said the problems he was probably referring to, like it being too vague in some of the wording, are “legal urban legend” and he believes it would hold up.

The land on which Hard Truth Hills was built was called Firecracker Hill because it was where fireworks used to be set off, and that hill was chosen because it had great visibility and sound amplification for the rest of the “bowl” that is Nashville, Roberts said.

“You might not be able to hear it at the courthouse, but you can hear it at a hill across the valley, so that’s something you’re going to have to deal with and work with your neighbors on, but I think there are some remedies on all sides,” he said.

Gore said that the Nashville Police would keep a record of complaint calls and Seastrom would report back to the council next month. The next regular town council meeting will be Thursday, Oct. 17.

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