The Atlanta City Council on Tuesday did not approve proposed legislation that would have tightened restrictions on new recording studios.
The ordinance was introduced by Council member Felicia Moore. She said she’s received complaints about noise coming from recording studios in her district and too many cars parked outside.
The ordinance would have required all new recording studios to obtain a special use permit and be 300 feet or farther from residential areas.
But her plan failed. She was the only council member who voted for it.
Mike Froetge was one of nearly 50 protesters that attended the council meeting. He owns Open Sky Studios.
“I think this legislation, however noble the councilwoman’s intentions may have been was just misguided,” he said. “It was just going to apply to new businesses that don’t even exist yet. And it would not retroactively affect the couple of studios that have actually been an issue.”
The ordinance would also have affected him. Froetge said the building that’s housed his recording studio for the past 10 years was recently sold. If this legislation had passed he said he would have relocated his studio outside of Atlanta’s city limits because the new restrictions would have been an “unnecessary expense.”
Council member Kwanza Hall said he and Council member C.T. Martin will work on the issue.
“We don’t want them [neighbors beside studios] to have late nights when they can’t sleep, and their children can’t sleep, and they have to call the police over and over,” Hall said. “Studios might have been there first, but it doesn’t justify being a bad neighbor.”
Hall says he’ll start by looking at enforcing existing city laws about parking and noise in residential areas.
Like us on Facebook
9(MDAxODM0MDY4MDEyMTY4NDA3MzI3YjkzMw004))
