Asheville City Council, concerned over the economic losses local businesses have suffered due to Hurricane Helene, is considering new strategies to boost downtown activity. One of those ideas — relaxing part of the city’s noise ordinance — is now slated for a vote at Council’s next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Mark Matheny, Asheville’s director of development services, first presented the idea to Council’s Planning, Economic Development, and Environment Committee in August. The law currently allows music venues to receive a special permit, granting them permission to be louder than usual for certain performances. For the largest venues, those “sound exceedance events” are capped at 30 per year. The proposed ordinance change would raise that cap to 50 events over a year-long pilot program.
That tweak would directly impact just one existing business: Asheville Yards, formerly known as Rabbit Rabbit, a 4,000-person capacity outdoor performance center on Coxe Avenue. The venue maxes out its quota, hosting concerts by nationally touring artists such as Willie Nelson, Chappell Roan, and Father John Misty.
But Asheville Brewing Company President Mike Rangel, whose company operates Asheville Yards, believes a more generous cap on his venue’s events would benefit the surrounding area as well. South Slope businesses like the Wicked Weed Funkatorium and Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ, he says, can see up to three times their usual traffic on concert nights. And many patrons come from out of town, staying at local hotels or short-term rentals after a show.
Although Rangel doesn’t have specific economic projections for the impact of Asheville Yards concerts, the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority has recently touted the benefits of shows at the larger Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville.
A February run of six performances by bluegrass superstar Billy Strings, for example, generated $15.7 million in direct spending, while a three-night stint by jam band Widespread Panic brought in $8 million in July. The Asheville Downtown Association has opted “not to take a position on the noise ordinance,” according to Executive Director Hayden Plemmons.
Raising the event cap would also allow Asheville Yards to host more community events, Rangel says. He anticipates only scheduling 35 to 38 concerts out of the 50 permitted, leaving other sound exceedance dates for happenings like family-friendly festivals and nonprofit fundraisers.
“We’ve had high school marching bands ask if they can practice here, and we’ve been scared — if you’ve got a tuba player that’s had two Red Bulls, he’s going to trigger [a noise ordinance violation],” Rangel says with a smile. “It’ll give us more flexibility.”
Asheville’s noise rules last got an update in 2021, drawing heated community debate between music industry professionals and downtown residents over how to regulate performance venues. Since then, the city has continued to average about 125 noise complaints every month, with most tied to residential neighbors, business operations, and vehicles with loud exhaust systems or speakers.
Asheville Yards has received five complaints so far this year, but in each case was found to be in compliance with its permit. Rangel adds that the venue recently installed new speakers designed to keep sound from escaping the property.
Council members seemed generally supportive of the rule change in August. Sage Turner noted that the city needed more large outlets for live music; the 3,000-person capacity Salvage Station was destroyed by Helene, while the 1,500-person Hatch Amphitheater closed earlier this year. Kim Roney also backed putting the proposal to a vote, but suggested that the city’s volunteer Noise Advisory Board provide input first.
That body, like most of the city’s citizen advisory boards, hasn’t met since last September and was moved to an as-needed meeting schedule in August. Reb Haizlip, the Noise Advisory Board chair, says Matheny notified him about the new proposal but didn’t seek any formal guidance.
Haizlip says it’s challenging to strike a balance on noise rules, although he couldn’t speak on behalf of the board given the suspension of its meetings. He notes that the World Health Organization has tied chronic environmental noise to higher levels of stress and heart disease, making it more than just a nuisance for residents. Yet he acknowledges that the city needs to encourage more economic activity in the wake of Helene.
“There does need to be compromise across the city to sustain businesses, to keep people employed and occupied. It’s not unreasonable to think that there can be changes in the laws that allow that,” says Haizlip. “That’s not to say that people won’t be unhappy.”
