Noise Gripes Loud And Clear

By ANGELA DELGADO The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 7, 2008

TOWN - 'N COUNTRY - Amy James just wants the BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, to stop, stop, stop.

James, who lives on Benjamin Road, has been hearing those booms for almost two months; so have her husband and sons ages 13 and 10. The booms come mostly after midnight and have been known to last until after 3 a.m., she said.

The booms are coming from the Green Iguana at 9202 Anderson Road and are affecting James and her family, who live about a mile away.

"When I first started noticing, I kind of tried to ignore it," she said. Then, "you're just lying there and everything is boom, boom, boom, boom. Putting a pillow over your head doesn't help; closing your ears doesn't help. That's what we tried for so long."

Then James reached a boiling point and called the sheriff's office. It referred her to the county Environmental Protection Commission.

The EPC was aware of the situation.

For a couple of years, staff members have responded five times to complaints about the Green Iguana on Anderson, said Kay Strother, assistant director of the air division of the EPC. But, it wasn't until her staff visited the James home April 13 that they had something to work with.

The EPC monitored the noise levels from 12:50 a.m. to 2 a.m. using "scales that we read on that most closely mimic what human ears hear," Strother said. The standard limit on that scale is 55 decibels. That night, the scales read 59 decibels coming from the Green Iguana into the James home.

Staff members also took "readings on several frequency bands that make up the spectrum of sound," she said. The EPC has a 65-decibel standard for those frequency bands, which are 63 hertz and 125 hertz, and they reflect the base sounds, Strother said. For the 63 hertz, staff measured 88 decibels, and at 125 hertz staff measured 71 decibels.

Until James called, the EPC and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office were inundated with calls from residents in the Twelve Oaks neighborhood, off of Waters Avenue a little more than a mile from the Green Iguana.

Residents such as Don Graham, 68, heard the music but assumed it was a neighbor or a party. It wasn't until a neighbor followed the noise in a car that they realized the restaurant was the offender.

"They built an open patio in the back, and the music goes down past that lake" behind the restaurant, Graham said. "There's nothing to block that music down Waters Avenue."

"I hear that thump, thump, deep base sound," he said. "I can hear that in my house with the windows closed. The TV helps to drown it out but as soon as we turn the TV off, we definitely hear it. I've tried ignoring it, but it's that continual thump, thump where there have been a couple nights where I couldn't get to sleep until 2, 3 in the morning."

Although residents said they are being kept up at night, the EPC's measurements in the neighborhood from the Green Iguana do not exceed the limit.

Strother said the measurements taken from the James home did exceed acceptable limits and led them to send the Green Iguana a warning notice at the end of April, giving them 10 days to respond upon receipt.

"What we're looking for is a correction," she said. "We want to ensure the sound levels are in compliance with our sound level limits."

So does the Green Iguana, said Rick Calderoni, president of the GI Entertainment Group, which oversees the restaurants; he met with the EPC on April 30.

Calderoni said the company has been in contact with a few neighbors and with the EPC. When he spoke with the EPC, they reviewed the complaint files, and Calderoni was referred to a few noise consultants who will take measurements in the neighborhood.

"We've never had any issues before, especially in that location with the commercial around us," he said. "It's a bizarre circumstance. That's why we're getting an outside consultant to come in and get their take on it; to see where we're at and see if we're in violation on a regular basis to see what we can do to correct the problem."

"We want to make sure we do our part and are good neighbors," he said.

For Graham, correcting the problem would be ideal.

"Our goal is to just get them to stop the loud noise, deep base music," he said. "It's at the point where we're very exasperated."

James agreed.

"We just want them to stop," she said. "We want our sleep back."

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.