After pushing to include a ban on amplified live music in a rezoning bylaw for Goldmoss Gallery, Roberts Creek director Donna Shugar wants Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) staff to now come back with a report on the feasibility of regulating amplified music.
Banning amplified live music for outdoor gallery events was one of the changes to the draft bylaw proposed by Shugar and passed by the planning and development committee on July 17. Another change was to limit such events to four per year.
At the July 24 board meeting, however, Shugar said the proposed ban was getting pushback from the gallery owners and their supporters.
“I’m getting a lot of emails from the applicant, and people who support the applicant, very resistant to the elimination of amplification of live music,” she said.
“And what I’m getting is suggestions for alternative ways to look at it through decibel reading — you can get an app on a phone that reads decibels, apparently it’s not a big deal. I don’t know if that’s a big deal or not.”
Shugar’s request was for “staff to research the use of decibel meters to regulate noise from amplified live music and to discover whether that would be an option that would be acceptable.”
Board chair Garry Nohr asked, “You moving that?”
“That’s my motion,” Shugar said.
West Howe Sound director Lee Turnbull objected.
“So where is that going to fit into the work plan?” Turnbull asked. “It’s a whole new piece of research — as I understand it, related to noise. A whole new topic, Mr. Chair. We’re in first reading of a specific rezoning in the middle of a residential zone.”
“Interesting though, don’t you think?” Nohr asked.
When he called the question, only Turnbull was opposed and the motion carried.
Currently zoned R1, the gallery has been operating for more than four years in the larger of two houses at 2840 and 2842 Lower Road. The proposed rezoning to a new residential/art gallery designation would bring the property into compliance.
The bylaw would also make the keeping of poultry a permitted use, and Shugar’s motion directed staff to investigate setbacks on the property, particularly in regard to the side parcel lines, before a public information meeting is held.
Both the art gallery use and the raising of poultry are supported within residential zones under the Roberts Creek official community plan, but are still not permitted in the R1 zone, staff reported on July 17.
