Is Punta Gorda's Noise Law Too Vague? | News

Tamie Wallack plays pickleball in December 2019 at one of the four authorized courts at Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda.

SUN FILE PHOTO BY DANIEL SUTPHIN

Tamie Wallack plays pickleball in December 2019 at one of the four authorized courts at Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda.

SUN FILE PHOTO BY DANIEL SUTPHIN

PUNTA GORDA — Punta Gorda Council meetings have been generally quiet over the last couple of years regarding noise complaints in the city.

The city’s noise ordinance was the center of controversy for months, however, due to a conflict between West Retta Esplanade homeowners and pickleball players at Gilchrist Park, which also rests along West Retta.

That conflict was seemingly resolved in July 2019.

But at Wednesday’s meeting, two Punta Gorda residents proposed that the ordinance is too vague, citing the code’s language of any noise or sound found to be offensive beyond the premises of the person making the noise is considered a nuisance and in violation of the code.

“A direct experience that I had was in playing my music where a neighbor didn’t like the music and so he came and complained about it,” said Punta Gorda resident John Sbraga during public comment. “Most people would not find it to be offensive. This gentleman did.”

The ordinance was not on the meeting agenda.

“Looking at that problem and understanding how vague it is,” Sbraga added, “it becomes problematic for many other situations in the city.

“One situation happens to be down the street (from City Hall) with pickleball and Gilchrist Park.”

The conflict of noise at Gilchrist Park and pickleball came to a head in December 2018 when council members opted to close the courts for two days at Christmas, only to reverse that decision in a special meeting a few days later.

Over the next several months, the City Council established a plan limiting the park’s eight courts to four, adding a 10-foot-tall sound barrier wall along the court fences facing the homes, restricting parking on the grass at Gilchrist, and forming an ad hoc committee to address the game at the park.

Through an independent sound study, the committee found that the sound barrier had sufficiently reduced the decibel level for neighbors.

Prior to installing the fencing, the noise level was about 55 decibels or equal to birds chirping from 20 feet away, the committee’s report stated.

With the fence, it was reduced by about 10 decibels.

At their July 3, 2019, meeting, the City Council accepted the committee’s findings, agreeing to keep four pickleball courts open at the park.

“We have discussed this ad nauseum and I just really believe we are all done with it,” Vice Mayor Debby Carey told The Daily Sun. “(The discussions) were part of a well-thought-out, six-week-long compromise between all the parties involved. I was at every one of those meetings and they all agreed.”

Edwin C. Porter Jr. of Punta Gorda also said the ordinance was too vague.

“In reading that over, I noticed that there is quite a bit of subjectivity, especially where it talks about noise or sounds that are offensive,” Porter told the City Council during public comments. “I look around the room here and I could probably get 20 or 30 different definitions of what is offensive.”

Porter urged the City Council to readdress the ordinance and establish numerical decibel levels as restrictions to make it easier for Punta Gorda residents to understand.

City Council Member Jaha Cummings represents the Historic District where the pickleball conflict occurred.

He told The Daily Sun it was unlikely they would readdress the noise issue.

“I do not see that coming back again,” Cummings said. “It’s already been decided in our community with a compromise protecting the interest of the residents, as well as allowing members to play so we came to a medium between the two.

“I do not foresee any changes to that whatsoever.”

Email: daniel.sutphin@yoursun.com

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