West Stockbridge — During the July 24 back-to-back West Stockbridge Zoning Board of Appeals meetings, members queried whether appeals hearings focused on alleged sound emanating from local venue The Foundry will ever cease. At the end of several hours of testimony and discussions, the board approved an extension for its decision on the combined hearings to October 3, with a final hearing set for September 6 at 7 p.m. Aided by town counsel Jonathan Eichman, the deadline was agreed to by all parties as well as board members to allow the latter time to assess any new materials and evaluate recordings allegedly reflecting the sound in question.
“It is a rabbit hole that you are never going to come out of,” The Foundry attorney Bill Martin said to the board. “I suggest and ask you to ask town counsel to focus this meeting on the issue at hand so that the questions that you’re answering are the correct questions and you can move on.”
The meetings were a continuation of the June 29 hearing—appeals of decisions made by town zoning enforcement officer Brian Duvall following complaints filed by Trai Thi Duong and Truc Nguyen alleging the sound from the nearby event space was above allowable limits. Those limits were set in The Foundry’s special permit granted December 5 by the town’s Planning Board. (Duong and Nguyen operate a restaurant and maintain a home on their Harris Street property that is between 50 and 80 feet from The Foundry.)
As with the June hearing, Duvall said that he found the sound reflected on tapes from sensitive noise capturing equipment staged at the venue on the dates in question did not violate the permit, a permit that limits noise to 60-65 decibels from a microphone placed at the property line.
Mitch Greenwald, attorney for Duong and Nguyen, said his clients disagree and are disturbed by the noise within the confines of their building. He said he just filed another request for information relevant to a decision made by Duvall during the last week and offered information regarding other noise concerns that occurred but weren’t the basis of a filing or complaint. Greenwald said his clients have only taken issue with four or five shows at The Foundry out of a total of 25 or 30 shows.
“We’re getting a lot of stuff, from both sides,” Member Jack Houghton said. “And we’re wondering where it ends.”
On behalf of his clients, Greenwald produced an updated report by his expert, Jeffrey Komrower of USA Noise Control, showing noise spikes during productions.
On behalf of The Foundry and its owner Amy Brentano, attorney Bill Martin asked the board if they had confidence in Duvall’s analysis of The Foundry audio in relation to the data produced by its specialized equipment. Martin urged the dais to get their own earphones and listen to the tape for themselves to decide the case.
The group proposed hiring an outside sound engineer in the previous hearing, but Board members said no funding exists to sponsor an expert who could help guide their response. The Foundry’s special permit provided that Duvall, as zoning enforcement officer, could seek an expert should he need one.
“If the town says we can’t afford [an expert], what does the condition mean,” Greenwald said. “The planning board says the building inspector shall engage an engineer if necessary. It’s clearly necessary. How can the town say, ‘no’?”
Although Duvall listened to the audio of the performances that were the subject of the complaints on his laptop speakers, he used Bose-quality earphones to listen to the tape again before the July 24 hearings, but with no resulting change in his assessment. As with prior hearings, he suggested the special permit be amended, since a permit condition states that a violation attributed to The Foundry occurs should any sound on the audio tape exceed the decibel limits specified without considering any other possible sources for such sound, including wind or traffic.
“[Duvall] interpreted that [special permit] condition to read that the sound readings that went over the limits had to have a connection to sound coming from The Foundry,” Eichman said. “That’s not expressly stated in that [special permit] decision of the Planning Board.”
According to Martin, the permit should have provided a time limit, such as allowing music until 10 p.m., instead of a decibel limitation that’s proven difficult to measure.
For Greenwald, the purpose of the special permit is “to protect those who would suffer the effects of the sound most acutely,” and the permit issued to The Foundry declined to “take adequate account” of his client’s needs.
Alternate Member Gunnar Gudmundson said he called the manufacturer of the equipment The Foundry uses to review its audio to ensure compliance with the venue’s special permit. He said he listened to a recording from that equipment and suggested checking the way one setting—automatic gain control—was calibrated. Gudmundson said he couldn’t separate out the wind noise from other noises at times, making it difficult to measure the sound emanating from the venue.
Brentano produced three recordings when there were no events taking place at The Foundry, alleging that the sound reflected the same levels occurring during a performance. However, Nguyen said that those tapes weren’t created in the evening when the performances occurred and weren’t reflective of what she was hearing inside her establishment and home.
“We’re trying to do this without the Board having any neutral expert advice,” Houghton said of the group’s decision-making process.
