St. Augustine neighbors plea for peace, quiet

St. Augustine city leaders meet to discuss noise complaints

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – It’s the nation’s oldest city of St. Augustine that’s dealing with all the racket and concerned neighbors want some peace and quiet.

Thursday morning, more noise made at a city hall meeting. No final decision on how to tamp down the noise was made at the meeting, but it's to start a discussion that some of the neighbors say is a long time coming.

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St. Augustine is known for its history. Some visitors might even describe it as tranquil.

But if you live here, you might notice that there can be a lot of noise. Art Boccieri has lived in the heart of the city for more than 40 years.

"There's every day problems, but more people are going to bring more noise, of course," said Art Boccieri, whose concern is the bars late at night. "We're awakened a lot. Sometimes 2:00 in the morning, or ten after two. There will be loud noise. We'll hear people screaming."

Boccieri has spoken up about it. City leaders say the number of complaints from even more neighbors is growing.

"I think that the community as a whole has wanted to address this for some time," said Assistant City Attorney Denise May.

May was at Thursday morning's meeting at City Hall. She told News4Jax that the current ordinance is decibel based. The levels are broken down by district. Some are commercial, others residential. For some neighborhoods, the difference is a couple blocks.

"They're seeing the encroachment of a lot of new restaurants, a lot of bars, and a lot of
other commercial activities as well," May said.

City leaders will talk about ways to fight the problem. Boccieri said he was looking forward to Thursday’s discussion.

"Absolutely, it's a good idea. It needs to be done," Boccieri said.

The assistant city attorney told News4Jax that one of the things they'll look is how other cities have handled similar situations, including Jacksonville Beach. The meeting started at 9 a.m. Thursday.


About the Author:

Ashley Harding joined the Channel 4 news team in March 2013. She reports for and anchors The Morning Show.