JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Even though the Jacksonville City Council decided earlier this month not to ban concerts at Metropolitan Park, some changes for the park could be in store in the near future.
A new committee has been formed to address its issues.
Metro Park can be loud when music is playing, and people across the river have come to expect that and put up with it for the most part. But sometimes, they say, it's too much, and that's what they want to see changed.
Katherine Moore owns a house across the river. She loves being there and loves most of the events that take place on the other side of the water. But she says recently two concert events have gone too far.
Moore points to the Rockville concerts at the park, saying it's not the loud music she's concerned about, but the dialog between bands, the fact that it goes on past midnight, and the constant profanity they say they hear across the river.
She doesn't want to see all events banned, but just wants the city to figure out how to bring the events in line.
"This is an absolute step in the right direction," Moore said of forming the committee. "It just, these isolated two events that they currently have under the city's noise exemption carte blanche. So how do we help make it a win-win so it does not take time away from me being in my backyard with my family?"
That's what the city hopes to find out. The head of the committee is councilwoman Denise Lee, who is looking for input from all sides.
"We are just concerned that we not make rash decisions, that we not just shoot from the hip, that we make sure we have done our homework so that when we are all gone, Metropolitan Park is still here and the citizens are united enough to want and see a Metropolitan Park," Lee said.