At this point, the Bonney Lake’s Diamond Lounge and its neighbors need to forget about relying on city officials to fix their noise battle, and sit down for a talk.
For more than a year, the bar and residents, who live on the other side of a shared fence, have struggled to reach a conclusion about the noise that bleeds through the Diamond Lounge’s walls and into neighboring living rooms. One neighbor says she takes prescription sleeping pills so the pounding noise won’t keep her up all night.
It wasn’t a problem when the building housed a friendly, neighborhood Italian restaurant that closed before the nightly news came on. The setting is different now, with noise coming from music inside the bar and patrons lingering in the parking lot.
The bar has received several noise violations, although the city has dropped seven of them. Most of the time when the police visit, there’s nothing they can do because the noise level doesn’t necessarily violate any laws. The city’s hands are tied, leaving the bar owner and neighbors in stalemate.
After months of complaints, Diamond Lounge owner Steve Crossley asked the city police to conduct a test of the noise level outside his bar. Decibel level readings taken over a couple of weeks show that the Diamond Lounge is on average the quietest bar in Bonney Lake. But the three other bars tested for noise level don’t sit next door to homes.
State standards, which the city hasn’t adopted, say the noise level must not exceed 45 decibels at 150 feet away after 10 p.m. The police department’s noise test shows the bar averaged 44.5 decibels one week and 37.7 the next. Normal conversational speech is generally measured at 50 decibels.
Neighbor Melanie Castrilli says she doesn’t like having the bar in her neighborhood but could at least live with it if it were completely soundproof.
Crossley says he wants to work with his neighbors. Last May, he built a structure to surround a side door to stifle the noise. During that period police saw a significant reduction in complaints. But the city made him tear it down because he hadn’t obtained a building permit. He’s willing to rebuild the structure, but first he wants a clear definition from everyone involved as to what, exactly, they expect of him.
It’s a fair request from a business owner who says he has spent $10,000 in an effort to keep his neighbors happy. Tell him what the standards are, give him a chance to meet that request and then hold him accountable.
Crossley, his neighbors and the city need to sit down together and set standards agreeable to everyone.
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