Council Member Sally Clark won a round against the music and club industry Monday, December 17, passing legislation that would impose steep fines ($1,000 for the first violation, $2,000 for the second and subsequent violations) on bars and clubs any time they play music that is audible to "a person of normal hearing" inside a nearby residence after 10:00 p.m. Clark says the city will come up with an objective standard, eliminating the possibility of arbitrary enforcement; however, that standard will be developed by the city's Department of Planning and Development, not the council, meaning that there probably won't be any public hearings on the new definition.

Clubs can get out of the fine by installing improvements that muffle sound (as Clark put it at Monday's meeting, "It's really our goal that nobody gets fined"), but those improvements are expensive, and installing sound absorbers is no guarantee that no one will complain—prompting yet another fine. Meanwhile, despite Clark's assertion that developers "need to be cognizant that the building standards for new structures that go up take noise into account," the ordinance places no burden whatsoever on developers to install improvements such as double-paned windows and thick walls, which could minimize noise transmission. recommended