BLOG: The Battle is Won, the War Goes On in the Fight for Better Quality of Life in WeHo

Score 1 for West Hollywood's residents in the never-ending battle over quality of life in our compact burg.

Last night, Anne McIntosh, the city's Deputy Manager and Director of Community Development, ruled that the Mondrian hotel's Skybar could no longer blast residents of the adjacent French Hill apartments with amplified music.

McIntosh ruled in a hearing on an application I filed to have the Skybar permanently barred from using outdoor speakers and outdoor DJs. Since moving into French Hill in October of last year, I've been kept awake many a night listening to the loud lyrics of songs such as "Roll Over Beethoven" and "We Will Rock You."

This turns out to have been an issue since 1996. That's the year the city foolishly agreed to permit the new Mondrian to operate what is, essentially, an outdoor bar and occasional dance club 40 feet from French Hill, an apartment building constructed in 1941, when Chuck Berry, author of "Beethoven," was only a teenager, Freddie Mercury of Queen (the famous performer of "Rock You") was a baby, and neither the Mondrian nor West Hollywood existed.

The Mondrian brought out all the big guns  --  Kendra Cole, manager of Skybar; Jeff Kulich, general manager of the Mondrian; a lawyer for Pebblebrook Trust, the Maryland-based company that owns the building; Jeff Seymour of Seymour Consulting,  a gaggle of sound engineers, and Genevieve Morrill, president of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.  

In sum, they made two arguments:  1) the Mondrian is a good law-abiding citizen that has worked with its neighbors to address this noise issue, and 2) barring the Skybar from using amplified music outdoors for even the estimated 90 days required to install a sound wall to block the noise would cause it to lose $850,000 in revenue and lay off 50 to 65 employees.

My argument also was simple:  City records and the testimony of residents shows the Mondrian's Skybar has violated the city's noise ordinance hundreds of times in the past 16 years. To grant an outdoor sound amplification permit to such a consistent lawbreaker would be like giving a notorious bank robber a permit to open a financial services firm on Santa Monica Boulevard (I admit to loving hyperbole).

The Mondrian, I also pointed out, can't be trusted to do what it says it will do. I documented that argument with numerous examples of violations, including the use of outdoor speakers before the Mondrian even applied for a permit, and their use after the Mondrian failed to meet conditions of the permit it was granted.

I also cited the violation that occurred after a recent nighttime meeting at French Hill with the city's Code Compliance inspector, me, and Mondrian sound engineers at which they demonstrated that newly installed controls on the outdoor sound system would blunt the sound. The controls worked for two hours, then the Skybar violated the noise ordinance that night and again the next night.

Finally, I pointed out that despite a city order that the Skybar not use outdoor speakers until this issue is resolved, they have used them several times (as recently as last week), and have been fined on several occasions at my insistence.

Ms. McIntosh (who reminds me of Judge Judy without the humor) rendered what I think is a fair decision. She declined to permanently bar the Skybar from using outdoor speakers. But she said they couldn't use them until they install a sound wall to keep noise from assaulting the Mondrian's neighbors.

She agreed to an exception during the construction period if the Skybar erects a temporary sound wall, which will be a 12-foot high plywood structure, blocking the view of the city from the Skybar, and probably not esthetically pleasing to the Skybar's premium vodka-swilling customers.

Finally, she insisted that, if any special permits are granted for loud music after 10 p.m., the Mondrian must pay to have a city Code Compliance officer present to ensure that it obeys the law. McIntosh also noted that the process to resolve this issue has taken nine months, which she described as too long.

Actually, it has taken 16 years. As I've said to friends many times, I'm impressed by the speed with which the City Council has acted to protect the rights of dogs and minks (and I love my dog and don't have a fur coat), but I wish City Hall would act with a little more alacrity when it comes to protecting the quality of life of its human residents.