Cape Coral neighbors and musicians clash over live music noise

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK)—Cape Coral's growth is bringing new places to eat, drink, and listen to live music, but not everyone is hearing sweet music.

For neighbors, it is a quality-of-life issue. For some musicians, it is a livelihood.

WINK News reporter Paul Dolan was in Cape Coral, where both sides are looking for the same thing: a way for the city to move forward without drowning each other out. Just across the waterway, Slipaway is becoming a test of compromise as Cape Coral continues to evolve.

Neighbors say the sound of live music is getting harder to live with, and they just want the volume turned down. But musicians say even after doing that, they're losing gigs, and now everyone is trying to figure out how to make it work.

Slipaway looks like Cape Coral's future, but for some musicians, that future may be silenced.

"Some of us, it's their only form of income," a local artist said.

Local artists told Dolan that altering their shows doesn't matter because the show gets shut down.

"We kept it down to a bare minimum. We could hear traffic on the road from the stage. That's how quiet our level was, and it was still too loud," a musician said.

City documents show that any designated entertainment area must not exceed 75 decibels between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Cape Coral police said, as of April 7, 75 noise complaints were reported within a half mile of Slipaway.

This month alone, the crime map shows 20 noise complaints. Tom Hill had heard gentle sounds in his backyard for 14 years, but then Slipaway was built.

"The amount of noise, just from the bands, it doesn't seem like there's any control," Hill said.

Hill wants to enjoy the view but not control what happens across it.

"The quality of life that we had here before slipped away," Hill said. "You really can't be sitting outside and enjoying yourself or having a normal conversation."

However, that's the same sound local artists are trying to keep alive.

"Any venue that supports live music is a winner all the way around, not only with the customers, but with the musicians," a local artist said.

Slipaway confirmed that they are not currently having live musicians play. They are also pausing live performances this week while they work on the next steps to limit the noise.