West Des Moines Will Keep Noise Ordinance; Val Air Supporters Sought Exemption

The Val Air Ballroom will not be exempt from a West Des Moines sound ordinance that was strengthened two years ago in response to complaints from the venue’s neighbors

West Des Moines City Council members Monday declined to exempt the historic venue from the ordianance. Complaints in recent months, primarily from residents in Des Moines’ Waterbury Neighborhood, have said that low bass frequencies were eroding their quality of life.

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Instead, the committee that recommended the most recent iteration of the city’s sound ordinance will get back together to discuss whether change needs to be made to the code. That meeting likely will take place within the next two weeks, with issues to include:

• Changing where sound readings are taken, including whether police officers should be sent to complaining properties to take readings, including those out of their jurisdiction in Des Moines;
• Whether decibel levels – 10 decibels above the ambient noise reading – should be changed; and
• Recommendations on physical changes to the building to reduce noise coming from the Val Air.

Before that meeting, Mayor Steve Gaer asked Val Air General Manager Chewi Lockhart to gather hard figures on how the business would be affected if physical improvements were required.

Acoustic foam insulation would cost about $300,000, and there’s no guarantee that would stop noise from leaving the building, Lockhart said.

“That’s the biggest sound mitigation solution we’ve looked at, but we can’t do it financially,” he said. “The only way to make sure no sound leaves is building a building around the building.” 

Exempting Venue Amounts to Spot Zoning

Exempting the venue from the sound ordinance, as the Friends of the Val Air asked in petitions circulated online and in person, constitutes illegal spot zoning, said City Attorney Richard Scieszinski. He said it’s doubtful that a reasonable basis for the exemption could be found – a factor the Iowa Supreme Court ruled must be considered in granting spot zoning.

An exemption would benefit only the Val Air and “to a lesser extent its patrons,” and does not appear to be related to the public health, safety, morals or welfare – standards normally cited in granting exemptions, the attorney advised.

“In contrast, a large section of the community would be adversely affected by the exemption, as it would detrimentally affect this segment of the community’s peace and well-being,” he wrote.

Ward 1 Councilman Kevin Trevillyan, in whose district the Val Air is located, urged the council to do nothing. “Eighty-nine percent of the residents living closest to the Val Air are asking for an exemption,” he said.

That figure was gleaned from more than 1,250 signatures on various petitions gathered by Friends of the Val Air to show widespread support for exempting the venue from the noise ordinance.

“Those people aren’t going to live there forever,” Gaer said. “We are going to be looking at this all the time.”

In the past year, the Val Air has hosted 68 concerts and events, with only three violations. Gaer said the issue before the council isn’t the number of complainants and where they live, but the decibel readings. In two of the three most recent complaints, decibel readings were near 90 decibels.

At a Bassnectar concert on Sept. 28, the ambient noise level was 65 and the reading with the music was 88.2. At a Dayglow concert on Nov. 18, no ambient noise reading was taken and the sound reading was 91.8.

West Des Moines Police Sgt. Jody Hayes said arriving at an acceptable decibel level is tricky.

“We don’t believe the sound ordinance itself is the issue,” Hayes said. “You can put same band on same stage five nights in a row, and get five different readings because of everything happening inside and out – ambient noise, weather, traffic, air conditioning units. They all play against it.”

The city spent $10,000 on sound consultant services when the ordinance was reconfigured two years ago.

“It is in our opinion we are where we need to be to control the sound coming from any establishment,” Hayes said, noting, however, that the decibel levels in West Des Moines are substantially higher than in eight other Iowa cities studied for comparison.

Police Have Discretion on When to Issue Citation

Calling the Val Air “a gem of West Des Moines,” Gaer said that as he understands it, the primary fear of the Friends of Val Air is that city officials will take away the venue’s permit, “which is tantamount to shutting it down.”

“We have a lot of discretion,” Gaer said. “We don’t want to close the Val Air, but how do we come up with a reasonable win-win solution?”

City officials disputed the Val Air’s claim that the sound ordinance is onerous and it threatens the ballroom’s ability to do business. The business was able to continue operating under the provisions of the ordinance, Scieszinski wrote, “but simply seeks exemption from them.”

“It doesn’t need an exemption to exist,” he said, pointing out Lockhart was on the committee that considered the most recent iteration of the ordinance. “

“To say it rises and falls based on the exemption of the sound ordinance is incorrect,” Scieszinski said.

Waterbury Residents Stop Short of Threatening Legal Action

Since September, only three of the complaints have come from West Des Moines. Dave Holzinger, 605 54^th St. in Des Moines, said, “you almost have to wonder if speakers weren’t turned away from West Des Moines” to minimize complaints in the Val Air’s host city.

He doesn’t think the petitions should carry much weight with city council members because Waterbury residents’ concerns may have been mischaracterized as wanting to force the venue out of business.

“We just want to have a decent night’s sleep,” Holzinger said.

Bill Brown, who lives at 6055 N. Waterbury Drive in Des Moines, stopped short of saying the matter could end up in court – something residents of the Des Moines neighborhood have suggested as a last resort– and the Val Air could close as a result.

“We have rights, as well, and I want to avoid this situation escalating to where it might go,” Brown said.

The solution, he said, is for the Val Air to either exert greater control over sound technicians to gain greater compliance, or to require physical improvements to the Val Air.

“If the city believes it’s such a treasure, there ought to be some way to finance that – Des Moines might even help – through low-interest financing. The problem will continue unless one of those things happens.”