Bars and restaurants in London are a step closer to being allowed to play amplified music and have dancing on their patios.
The city's Planning and Environment Committee voted 6-0 on Tuesday to lift a ban on amplified music and dancing on patios across the city. The matter still requires the approval of full council, which meets next week.
Council had banned amplified music on patios in 1993, but bars and restaurants that had patios prior to then were given an exemption. City staff recommended a lifting of the ban to level the playing field.
"It's really important to move forward here in a balanced way. it makes sense to remove these sections and to move forward with the staff recommendation and it makes sense because of the recommendations that are coming through the committee from last evening," said Mayor Matt Brown, referring to Monday's meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee, which saw councillors recommend that the city allow music on patios until midnight but at volume levels no louder than 70 decibels.
Some speakers at Tuesday's meeting were adamant that the city not allow amplified music on patios.
Others, like Kate Rapson of the Woodfield Community Foundation, were hopeful of a compromise.
"It's good to move forward, but we need to be cognizant that there are young families down here, people wanting to live and to sleep, to go to bed at the right time," said Rapson, who would like the see the outdoor music stop at 11pm. "If it goes to midnight and it slips passed midnight, then it takes longer for a bylaw officer or police officer to get out there to shut it down if someone is struggling with the noise."
The recommendations of both the Community and Protective Services Committee and the Planning and Environment Committee will be voted on by full council next week.
