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Hear Noise-Limiting Ordinance With Care

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2008

Some Temple Terrace residents and neighbors of the Ford Amphitheatre are worried that proposed changes to the county's noise ordinance will mean the return of the excessively loud concerts that once disrupted their neighborhoods.

In times gone by, residents up to four miles away from the amphitheater complained about the thundering noise. In response, commissioners spent more than two years fighting Clear Channel Entertainment, which runs the concert venue, in both the board room and courtroom.

So when the board meets today as the Environmental Protection Commission to consider the revisions, among them a change in the method of measuring sound, it is important that members make sure a revised ordinance is not a weakened ordinance.

It doesn't look like it is, because the recommendations are supposed to reflect the newest and best science and appear to strengthen the 30-year-old law's enforcement provisions.

Moreover, EPC staff held informal meetings with the public in July and August, and a Citizens' Environmental Advisory Committee voted unanimously in favor of the rule changes.

Still, after two years of relative quiet in the nearby neighborhoods, commissioners must make sure a new ordinance won't change that.

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