London city councillor calls to nix noise restrictions in zoning bylaw

A city councillor has started a petition calling for the amendment of a zoning bylaw that prohibits music and dancing on certain London patios.

City council approved the music, entertainment and culture district strategy on March 21, which includes a prohibition of amplified live and recorded music, dancing and other forms of entertainment on restaurant and bar patios. There is an exception for unplugged acoustical music.

READ MORE: Committee approves London culture districts, says no to looser noise bylaws

“The maddening thing about it is that some restaurants and bars can have that because they were doing it before the zoning change came in, the rest of them can’t,” said Coun. Jesse Helmer.

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“So, it’s even worse than you might think where it’s also unfair in addition to being unnecessary.”

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Helmer’s petition is calling for support to amend the zoning bylaw and have the noise restrictions removed. The city already regulates noise through the noise bylaw, so he says it’s not required.

“The conflicts of people playing loud music that annoys people, we can deal with that through the noise bylaw,” said Helmer.

“That’s why we have a noise bylaw, to try and minimize those types of conflicts. But we’re doubly regulating it and it doesn’t belong in a zoning bylaw to say you can’t do these things.”

READ MORE: ‘Rock the Park’ asking council for extra night

Tourism London’s director of culture and entertainment Chris Campbell agrees with Helmer.

“Some people that I spoke to that were concerned and expressed concern about things such as noise on a patio, really didn’t understand what they are trying to achieve,” said Campbell.

“There’s a little bit of misunderstanding that they think there’s going to be a loud rock band that is going to keep them awake at night, when in fact, a lot of these patios and bars just want background music.

The petition can be reviewed on Helmer’s website here.

An amendment to remove the prohibition will get public feedback at a future planning and environment committee meeting.