Selectmen Reverse Decision On Noise Limits For Courtyard

     With approximately 75 people packed into the meeting room in town hall, Bourne Board of Selectmen decided Tuesday to ease the limitations on the hours music could be provided at the Courtyard Restaurant & Pub in Cataumet.
     Public discussion centered on the volume of the live music provided at the Courtyard as Bourne selectmen reconsidered the conditions they had previously placed on that establishment’s entertainment license.
     That action will allow the Courtyard’s owners, Paula and Jay Miller, time to prove that they can rein in the noise to a level that will allow neighbors to sleep, while still providing the outdoor, late night music that has become the business’s drawing card.
     By a unanimous vote, selectmen voted to incorporate a memorandum of agreement between the board and the Courtyard into its entertainment license.
     The agreement allows outside music between 11 AM and midnight, Sunday through Thursday, and from 11 AM to 12:30 AM on Friday and Saturday nights. However, no percussion or bass instruments may be played outside. Music will be allowed from, for example, a singer accompanied by an acoustic guitar.
     Also according to that agreement, live music may be played inside from 11 AM to 12:30 AM, seven days a week. For the last half hour, until the pub’s 1 AM closing time, radio or other recorded music may be played.
     The owners also agreed to take measures to further soundproof the building, as well as to try sound baffles or other measures outside. They also said they have already instituted a policy of frequently checking the perimeters of the property to assess volume levels, turning them down if they are too high.
     Although selectmen approved that agreement, they also set a date on which they will revisit the issue: July 22.
     If and when that review takes place, it will be the sixth forum the selectmen have held this year concerning the music at the Courtyard.
     In January, the board heard noise complaints when the Courtyard’s entertainment license was renewed. In February, they continued noise discussion at a public forum. That meeting allowed neighbors to express their opinion, but since it was not a posted license hearing, selectmen could take no action on the license.
     In early March, selectmen held a posted entertainment licensure hearing at which they curtailed the Courtyard’s hours. Those conditions to the license limited inside music to 12:30 AM on weekends and 11 PM on weekdays. It also limited outside offerings to unamplified music played between the hours of 2 PM and 10 PM, on Friday through Sunday only.
     Later in March, the Millers requested that the board stay the enforcement of those conditions until this week’s reconsideration, saying the changes would be “devastating” to their business.
     This week, Mrs. Miller began the hearing by noting how many restaurants fail, saying how hard it is to survive or make a profit in a business dependent on seasonal traffic.
     She said it was due to her family and long-time dedicated staff’s efforts that the Courtyard survived. However, she said, part of the restaurant’s popularity was due to the uniqueness of the outside courtyard, with music provided under the stars.
     Mrs. Miller said that after complaints arose last July, all of those involved in the Courtyard operation worked hard to keep noise under control. Bands were moved inside and only acoustic instruments were allowed outside.
     She asked for time to prove to the neighbors that they could live together.
     One County Road resident stood up to say that he did not want the business hurt, all he really wanted was the volume reduced.
     William H. Grant of Cataumet noted that taking sound readings in the winter does not make much sense. He suggested another look at the noise level in the summer, and that if there is still a problem, by that time the town might be able to have concrete standards for decibel levels so the discussion did not continue to be “a  matter of he-said, she-said.”
     Several musicians who played at the Courtyard testified as to how often they had been asked by the Millers to turn their volume down, not up, as frequently happened in Boston bars. At least two band members said they were asked to stop playing early in deference to the neighborhood.
     Several selectmen said they had visited the Courtyard in the wake of complaints. Selectman Linda M. Zuern acknowledged that, when she was there, quite a few people came in at 10 PM or later, dropping by after work. She and Jay Miller toured the perimeter of the property, taking decibel readings at various places. She told Mrs. Miller that she had concluded, “I don’t care how late you play your music, so long as your neighbors can sleep.”
     After hearing further testimony, Selectman John A. Ford listed some local restaurants that were having problems surviving. He suggested allowing the Courtyard the opportunity to prove that it could address neighbors’ complaints.
     Mr. Ford, Bourne’s former chief of police, said he thought that people should call the police department, not town hall, if they have noise complaints going forward. The police, he said, would investigate and the board would have an objective third party to rely on when the license is next up for discussion.
     The July 22 hearing date, however, is not the next time the town will be discussing noise. A controversial amendment to the town’s noise bylaw, one that would make establishments with liquor licenses subject to that bylaw, is the first article in the warrant for the May 5 Special Town Meeting.
     That measure, if passed, would prohibit music or any other noise from being audible 150 feet from property lines. To date, those establishments that, like the Courtyard, are controlled by an entertainment license, have been exempt from the bylaw.
     The town Bylaw Committee voted not to support the measure, asking instead that selectmen take the time to do a comprehensive review of the outdated bylaw before sending it to Town Meeting. The Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce and the Buzzards Bay Vitalization Association have also opposed it.
     Selectmen decided Tuesday that they would ask the Bylaw Committee whether it would like to undertake that comprehensive review. Selectman Jamie J. Sloniecki, who proposed giving that committee the opportunity to rewrite the law, said that if committee members declined, or if the job was beyond that committee’s charge, a group made up of residents and businessmen could be assembled to take on a more extensive re-write, one more acceptable to both residents and businesses, not to mention closer to the state’s noise guidelines.