learn more about mobile food vending and the Columbus noise code. I am council member Emanuel Reie, chair of public safety committee, and I want to thank my co-chair this evening, uh, Council Member Rob Dorne, chair of the building and zoning policy committee, who is in route right now. So, he will be joining us, um, here in a moment. I also want to thank my colleagues, President Pro Tim Brown and Bangston that were here earlier for a a um, a another public hearing. they expeditiously got through that as we will do the same this evening. But we want to make sure that everyone feels heard and we give the opportunity to do so. As a reminder, this hearing is currently live on YouTube and Facebook and is also live and being recorded for rebroadcast on CTV Columbus's Government Television channel 3. The rebroadcast schedule is available at www.colus.gov. As I mentioned, there are two important topics being discussed this evening. mobile food vending and noise. The city of Columbus is growing, a thriving metropolitan city of over 915,000 residents. Large cities like ours include many factors. Housing density, built business and industrial districts, residential neighborhoods, public transportations, bars, restaurants and nightclubs, food trucks and food carts, concerts and festivals, construction, refuge pickup, parties, and loud noise, normal vehicle and auto noise, and irregular vehicle and auto noise. From good noise to bad noise, the Columbus City Noise Code is an important tool and resource for city government, businesses, and residents as we continue to grow. Regulations and enforcement are key. One part of this hearing tonight is based on this line of questioning. Who or what is making that noise? How loud is that noise? What hour of the day is the noise? Is that noise mobile or is it immobile? How do you report that noise? who is responsible for responding to or enforcing that noise. Not all noise is bad noise. Not all noise is unhealthy noise. But when noise turns bad, and we do know that it does, how can we do better? And as for mobile food vending, again, as a growing, bustling city. We have hundreds of registered food trucks and food carts in Columbus. Great, great food. I had mobile food this evening or this for lunch. uh but how we regulate and enforce them is a question at tonight's hearing. We will learn more about what is status quo and start to discuss how we can do better. This evening we will hear from the Department of Public Safety covering where Columbus stands currently with mobile food vending. And then we will hear from Columbus City Council's legislative research office covering where Columbus stands currently with our no noise code. This hearing is to hear, listen, and learn from all of you that are here to testify this evening. Nothing has been predetermined. Nothing is um you know moving down any particular road. So, it's important that we get a lot of different perspectives as we consider what changes we may make in the future. I want to welcome and thank you to each of our presenters this evening. Kathy Collins, the assistant administrator of support services at the Department of Public Safety. Welcome John Oswaltz, senior legislative adviser at Columbus City Council. I also want to thank Steven Dumbar from the Columbus City Attorney's Office and Sergeant Ben Lepa from the Columbus Division of Police for attending tonight to help answer questions. There's plenty of other people involved this evening. So, we will uh be calling on you as we move along. But without further ado, I will turn the floor over to our first presenter who will give us an overview of mobile food vending in Columbus. Kathy, the floor is yours. Thank you, Chair Remy. Um, thank you for allowing us to present information regarding mobile food vending. My name is Kathy Collins, as you said, and I am the assistant administrator in the division of support services. Support services oversees licensing, weights and measures, three communication support groups which are radio frequency 911 and computer aided dispatch and we also oversee the 911 emergency communication center. In addition to overseeing all those areas, I directly manage the license section which is divided into two units, the customer service area and the enforcement area. The license section is tasked with enforcing chapter 5 of the Columbus City Code, which is the business regulation and license code. The code identifies 42 different licenses that our office issues. Everything from taxi cabs to arcade, short-term rentals to alarm systems, and two different mobile food vending licenses. Today, I'm here to talk about mobile food vending. Currently, as of the end of October, we have licensed about 300 mobile food vending units. Those units include food trucks and food carts. The two licenses we issue are the general mobile food vending license that any unit must have to operate in the city of Columbus, whether they're on private or public area. In order to operate on a city street or the sidewalk right ofway, the owner must also obtain a public right-of-way license, which is an at it's an additional cost and sticker. Those licenses are reflected as stickers which are displayed on all four sides of the unit. And there are currently 265 public rideway units um that we've issued licenses to. In order to be licensed in the city of Columbus, a vendor starts with an application with our office, which includes obtaining a background check, proof of ownership, certificate of insurance, certificate of insurance, a letter of good standing from city taxation, a transient vendor's license from the state of Ohio, and the unit must pass an inspection performed by Columbus Columbus Division of Fire, which includes proof of passing a propane leak test inspection. The owner also must produce a valid certificate obtained after an inspection by their local department of health. And then at that point, our license officers will also inspect the unit for length um decibel level of the generator and some other um logistical things. Once that paperwork has been produced, an inspection is conducted by the license officer. And in late February to midappril each year, we hold a food truck rodeo along with the Columbus Fire and Columbus Public Health at our office on Groves Road where by appointment, the mobile food vendor can bring their truck and get all three inspections conducted at the same time. If a unit does not pass inspection, they are given the opportunity to correct the errors and return for another scheduled appointment. The 2014 legislation that created the mobile food vending code had a provision in it to create a lottery for public ride-of-way reservations. We currently contract with the street food finder to handle the res reservation system for both private and public right-of-way locations. A vendor in good standing may reserve one of the spots the city has designated through the website either in the way of either in the rightway or on the street where the meters are closed for the time that the unit are there at a cost. This past summer, as we enhanced information sharing with patrol officers from CPD, we had Street Food Finder create a portal for law enforcement use so that they could verify that a mobile food vending unit was in the correct location during the correct times. That portal is running uh and has been since July. With respect to enforcement, we get to most of our information from resident complaints or while driving around in Columbus and witnessing them ourselves. We also com receive complaints from other food vendors as they do a fairly good job of policing their own. If we get a complaint, a licensed enforcement agent will respond to the location and take enforcement action. Enforcement action can consist of a verbal warning, written warning, citation, and or taking the unit out of service. The highest enforcement would be impounding the food unit, but empoundment is a very rare occurrence and only our last resort. Ultimately, our goal is to get the food the mobile food vending unit in compliance so that they can go on with their business. In late summer last year and again in the spring of this year, the license section was approached by patrol members from the Columbus Division of Police as they were ramping up enforcement of various activities in the Short North after a series of reported crimes. We also received several complaints via the Short North Business Alliance as well. Starting in May of this year, and the most recent being Sunday, October 23rd, the license officers worked from 11:30 at night to 3:30 in the morning, concentrating on mobile food violations in the Park Street, Short North, and campus areas on either a Friday or Saturday night. We were assigned one to two uniformed officers to accompany us. The first week in the Short North, we shut down four mobile food carts, mostly for being unlicensed. We noticed several fire and health violations. So, the subsequent enforcement operations saw one to two fire inspectors and health inspectors joining us. There were more violations found and addressed. Over the six enforcement operations, the collaborative team performed 89 mobile food vending units inspections and shut down 19 of them. Several were repeat offenders. Our last enforcement operation was on a Sunday night to Monday morning, October 23rd into the 24th, and we inspected four carts and found 12 violations, shutting three of them down. Current code is not clear on what the congestion zone in the Short North entails, making it difficult to shut down any carts just for being in that zone. The majority of found violations include unlicensed unit, too close to a crosswalk or intersection, no fire extinguisher or tagged extinguisher, no proof of a propane pressure leak inspection test, not having the tool to perform the same open flame, uh no health certificate, no running hot water, and there were food temperature issues that health also found. The license section wants to publicly thank Columbus Fire, Columbus Public Health, and Columbus Police for their dedication to these enforcement operations over the last six months. Thank you, and I will attempt to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you very much, Assistant Director Collins. I uh want to acknowledge that my colleague, Council Member Dorren, is here. Would you like to ask anything or say anything? Okay. Um, can you, you probably mentioned it. Could you restate the current vendor hours that are allowed to operate? Well, it depends where you're operating a little bit, but uh, there can be no trucks on the no food units out between 3:00 in the morning and 6:00 in the morning. And, um, could you just educate us and the public where these things typically operate? you know, we we obviously know the short north, but you know, in general, where do food trucks typically operate? So, during the day, you will find a lot of the food carts downtown in front of the courthouse, along High Street, um where the bus stops are. Um typically in the evening, they'll go to um the Short North Campus area, and then Park Street where the bars are over in that area as well. Okay. Um are any of you guys from police able to answer any questions about the um congregate, you know, like the food trucks in the Short North specifically. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. I mean, what what have you been experiencing? What do you what do you see um you know, throughout the evening and then of course after when the bars close? So, my name sorry. My name is Joe Kermode. I'm a sergeant with the Columbus Division of Police. I organize the uh Short North Crime and Addiction Program, which is a group of special duty officers hired by the Short North Alliance uh that operates Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11:00 p.m. to 4 in the morning. Um in regards to mobile food vending, these mobile food vendors normally congregate very close to bars in in close proximity to other vendors. Uh normally they are right at intersections causing pedestrians to stand in the roadway directly at crosswalks. Um I you go out there on a Friday, Saturday night and you'll see 40 50 carts within a 7 to eight block area. Did you say 40 to 50 sometimes? Yes. And these are on the sidewalks. Uh most of them are on the sidewalks. Some of them are on private property. uh with sometimes the written permission of the owner, sometimes without the written permission of the owner of the private property. Uh they everywhere you look there will be a mobile food vendor. And it in your experience, are they licensed operators? I mean, do do you see licensed? The the Short North Crime Addiction program doesn't run during the winter. We started it uh in 2021 when there was a rash of violent crime in the district late at night. Um, when we first started in 2021 and again in the spring of 2022 when we picked back up after the winter, most of the vendors we ran into were unlicensed or had expired permits that were several years expired. Okay. Yes. Go ahead, Miss Col. Thank you. I do want to uh let you let the council know that um when COVID hit in 2020, we suspended and we suspended L operation in the office and we extended all the licenses until we reopened not knowing when that was going to be. Um, we had this last year moved the food truck rodeo from September to March to be compliant with code. And at that point, some people did still have 2019 licenses in 2020s because we just weren't renewing licenses during that point. We were only doing new food trucks during COVID so that businesses could So, you did the rodeo in March of 2022. Yes. Okay. And do you feel I mean are you backlogged or are you at at a point where now there's no excuse anybody that could that needed a license could come in and get it expeditiously. We kept tabs on how many people were coming in and how many still hadn't. And we did give a grace period of 15 days into April knowing we couldn't get all of them scheduled in time, but they were sent a letter, we sent an email out, I believe it was, that notifying them that by April 15th, they were expired expired. And this might be a a question for the Department of Public Safety, but tell um one of you guys maybe could come up and a representative come up and talk about enforcement because I know or maybe is that something you can talk about, Miss Collins, about or would that be better suited because you guys have done spot checks. We've done these things regularly. Correct. Anybody want to talk about that? I'll I'll jump in. Okay. Depends what enforcement you're talking about. We Well, I meant I I know we've done some inspections on the weekends at night and have you been involved with that? Yes. I've been out at every one. Okay. And through the course of that, what have you found again? Has there been a lot of, you know, trucks that haven't been uh licensed properly or At the beginning of summer, we found that there were several trucks that were out there unlicensed. Um we shut those down immediately. that caused them to come in and get their licenses. The further we went through the summer, the more compliance we found. Okay. And I don't want to pay paint a bad picture. I think that most are operating in a in the right way. I I would assume and and you know, good good businesses. It's obviously very good food uh typically. So otherwise, I wouldn't be in business. But um you know, I just I wanted to get some further clarity what was being experienced specifically in the in the short north. Council member Dorne. Thank you, Council Member Remy. Not sure if this is a question for the uh department or for uh Sergeant. Um just talking about 40 to 50 carts potentially in a you know in sort of the Short North area. I think part of the conversation we've heard in the community just thinking about sort of a congestion standpoint of these being sort of gathering places for folks late at night after you know bars um you know close for the evening. Just curious um when you talk about there some nights being there 40 to 50. Can you talk to me a little bit about just from a congestion standpoint and I think this maybe sort of a department question as well thinking through about where they're allowed to set up shop and I know um just mentioned a moment ago that some private property owners will allow them to operate on their property from time to time as well. So if you could just walk us through again as you know so this enforcement action has been taking uh you know course for for some months now sort of what you're seeing uh just from a congestion standpoint of uh carts close together spread out across the short north. if you could speak to that generally that I think that'd be helpful for us to sort of understand how that's happening out out in that area. So, in regards to congestion, we're seeing an extremely large amount of congestion, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. Um, I mean, you you'll have crowds completely blocky sidewalks overflowing into the roadway waiting for food. Um, and there will be carts directly located at the corner of an intersection. So, you'll have the crowd potentially going out and blocking the intersection. Uh, another issue we've seen is a lot of carts try to make as much money as they can. So, they push as long as they can serving to that 3:00 am deadline. And we have multiple re repeat offenders that we've caught serving at 3:30, 3:45, 3:20 um that we have spoke to multiple times regarding the 3:00 a.m. deadline and that they'll just continue serving, try to make money and try not to get caught. on that point. Um, who's in charge of enforcement? So, you know, if it's 3:15, you know, they're supposed to be done at 3. What type of authority do you have or don't have um to in order to make sure and then anybody can either of you can answer that. Thank you, Chair Remy and Councilman Dorren. Um, anything that we can enforce, police can enforce. So, they can be our eyes and ears out there. At one point this summer, we gave them a list of things that they could enforce and the numbers that they could write them under and gave them some ticket books so they can enforce just like we can. So, that as far as enforcement, it's a police is a force multiplier for us. Yeah, I understand. Do you do you have the staffing to do that type of work on in an evening on a weekend? currently has typically four licensed officers. We just got our fourth. Okay. And one had been out on long-term medical leave. So, at times I only had two. And when you talk about um and make sure your mics on to the green light, I know it's sensitive, but just for folks that that are maybe listening online or on over CTV. Um, when you're talking about congregations of people, is that after hours, after the bars have closed typically, or does it happen throughout the night? Uh, it begins normally around 1:00 in the morning. Um, and then you'll you'll see at 2:00 when the bars close, it it grows exponentially after that. So, it you the the main rush is probably between 1 to 2:30, 2:45. And then the carts that are near the big bars will stay incredibly busy until really 3:00 until they're often forced by us to be shut down. You're you're good. Okay. Oh, go ahead. Sergey, I know this may be difficult for you to speak uh from historical perspective given that I think a lot of the enforcement activity has has happened more of late. Um but I don't know if anyone can sort of answer this question who's up here right now. Um but we've had, you know, food carts, we've had food trucks for a very long time. We've had them for a very long time in the short north that has had an increasing amount of um establishments that primarily uh revolve around alcohol sales. Just sort of curious, we've again seen some more uh congregation here of late that has led to some incidents. Um anything different that that you're seeing sort of on the ground that has led to some of that? It you know, again, it's been a long time since I've been out in the short north at 2 in the morning, but there was a time and a place that that happened. Um I you know there were crowds uh back then but I you know didn't see you know massive amounts of you know 20 or 30 people like blocking entire sidewalks right. Um I'm just curious if there's anything different that's happening right now that you know we should be aware of as we're considering changes of this code. I mean over the last few years uh the Short North District has experienced a huge increase of late night liquor establishments. Um and some of that's seen by park street bars slowly moving into the short north district as well. Um so you know a lot of those liquor establishments are congregated into areas such as like high and first high and second where you'll have multiple large bars on the same block. So, um, that that's leading to the congregation and additionally those congregations of people we've we've seen throughout the city of Columbus an increase in violent crime and late at night a lot of intoxicated people leaving the bar and congregating at those late night food carts. We've seen a lot of violent criminal um acts at those food cart locations or close by those food cart locations. So, so Serge, if I'm hearing you correctly, from your vantage point, maybe some of the differences, the concentration of these establishments in an area. So, maybe, you know, uh maybe 10 years ago or 5 years ago wasn't any different, but people were more just spread out in that area. Um maybe less of a volume of individuals in that district at that time of night. Is that is that a fair assessment of your comments? Yeah, that's fair. That a lot more establishments down there, a lot more visitors to the district late at night. Okay. um assistant administrator, are these people um whether they're in the you know the well the sidewalk's the rightway too but but whether they're in the street or they have an actual cart are they registering these uh with street food finder Councilman Remy um Councilman Dorren there are only I think four reserve spots that they can reserve in between Goodale and Fifth. Um, obviously there's a lot more carts than that. Um, the issue is the congestion zone and there is not real clear language in code that we'd like cleaned up if possible that allows us to have reserve spots and if they're not in a reserve spot, it's easy to shut them down. Does the platform have the flexibility to allow for, you know, the differentiation between, you know, a reserve spot, which would presumably be a a truck versus a cart that might be on the sidewalk. Does it have that flexibility? Yes, because trucks are where they shut down meters during that time. They they pull in where the meters are for the reserve spot and they pay for that access. Okay. Just thinking out loud, it just seems to me that, you know, if there's a problem with limitation, if you aren't registered, then maybe you aren't allowed to operate. You know, just something to think about. But, um, okay, you good. Go ahead, Council Member Torren. Uh, Sergeant, I sorry, I don't mean to be grill on this. Just sort sort of curious as we're thinking through some of the consequences of how the code is um being applied out in the real world right now and some of the challenges of that. Um just wanted to sort of flip it from the opposite side from from the vendors themselves. So obviously when we're talking about this congestion sort of overflow again dealing with sort of difficult folks at a time of night that they may have had too much to drink. Have we had a significant amount of service calls from vendors themselves that are dealing with you know any you know crime that they're the victims of crime or anything along those lines that we should be aware of as we're thinking through from from you know the the vendor's point of view. uh working with the Short North Crime Interdiction for the last two years, I can't think of a single time a food cart vendor has called 911 and I've arrived on scene. Thank you. Also, I I kind of want to follow up a little bit because I want to talk a little bit about bars that are in that area. Now, in general, they're required to provide some sort of security for their patrons. Would that be an accurate statement? Yes. A lot of the bars in the district utilize private security as well as special duty officers. Just, you know, in thinking about this before leading up to this hearing, I thought about the fact that, you know, the the bars go to the expense of providing that security, but then when the people spill out on the street, that security isn't there. Now, I understand that that it's provided, you know, through the business association, but but the mobile food cart vendors and the mobile trucks are not paying into that type of security to make sure ensure that the streets are safe as well. Um, at least to my knowledge. Is that accurate? Yeah, that would be accurate. And that was one of the big reasons the crime and addiction program was started to approach more of a community approach to comm public safety because we understood that people were being pushed out of the bars at 2:00 and special duty officers can't patrol the whole district. Okay, thank you. That helps clear some things up. Do you have any further questions on this particular topic? Thank you so much for the presentation. We appreciate it. And uh who knows, we might have more questions as we move along, but we're going to move along into um our conversation around noise. And so um we'll hear from our um legislative you have a big title. I got to think senior le legislative advisor John Oswalt. Uh a little bit more about the noise code. Um thank you John and I appreciate your presentation. Absolutely. Uh thank you, Chair Remy, uh Chair Dorren. Um so just going to go over um pretty quickly here. Um the current state of community noise in Columbus. Um what that would consist of is looking at existing language uh in the Columbus City Code as well as a snapshot overview of what noise complaints look like uh right now in Columbus. So, uh, the community noise code can be found, uh, under general offenses. This is going to be in section 232911, community noise. Um, several pages worth of stuff. So, I was boiling it down into seven main parts, uh, to the noise code, looking at sound levels, prohibited sounds exemptions inspection variance procedure, issuance of orders, and penalty. So sound levels for land use districts. Um in section B this uh establishes maximum allowable hourly uh average sound levels based on land use category. Uh the focus here is on stationary uh continuous sound. Um any measurement of the sound for enforcement purposes takes place over not less than 60 consecutive minutes. So 1 hour. Um new structures in development. Uh there is a note in the code uh provision that states that the director of a department may use noise impact considerations prior to the approval of a zoning change. So taking into account what um possible noise impacts there are. So the sound levels are as such uh they remain this way for quite a while. Um so receiving land use category looking at um institutional this is uh looking at the hours between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and then 7 a.m. 1000 p.m. So generally um daytime versus nighttime hours. So um nighttime is a 60 uh to a 65 uh decel level. It's the same for all categories of residential land use. So, if you're thinking about 60 dB, you're looking at like a normal conversation between a few people. Uh 65 is like a light hair dryer. Um commercial sound levels looking at um the e or the nighttime hours being uh at a level of 70 and um daytime allowable 75. So, looking more like a vacuum cleaner. And then manufacturing uh for any time of day uh keeping in the decibel levels at 80. So this is something more like heavy traffic or a noisy restaurant. Uh prohibited sounds. So this is uh the next section of uh the code pertaining to the type of sound and where they emanate. So any person is prohibited from making any quote unreasonably loud and/or rockous noise in such a manner or at such a volume to disturb the quiet comfort or repose of a person of ordinary sensibilities. So this is as the code reads. Now this applies citywide. Uh it also regulates uh the use of sound amplification systems uh auditory devices or any device that generates sound and uh stationary sound sources uh such as uh standing motor vehicles, industrial equipment, fans, HVAC units, etc. Uh, no person can generate sounds from these sources from property zoned residential uh, quote, in a manner as to be heard uh, from 50 ft beyond the property line from where the sound emanates. When there are two or more residential units in one structure, the same applies, but uh, the sound is uh, not permitted to be heard from any more than 25 ft beyond the property line of the unit. It also applies when there are uh, adjoining residential properties located within 50 ft of each other. Uh the section as is does not address commercial property exemptions and inspection. Uh the next couple u subsections there. So the the following are exempted from this community noise section. Um emergency alerts or sound from emergency work, warning devices for protection of public safety. um outdoor gatherings, sporting entertainment events, uh similar activities um for which the person has a permit or a license from uh public safety or wreck and parks, public works projects, think road work, utility installation, repair um or sound from a residential property that is periodically generated um by any activity required to maintain the property in compliance with other city codes during those um more daylight hours. If you're thinking like work on the house or mowing the lawn, for example, uh the city may inspect with consent any device emanating from disturbing noise on a residential property. Uh when called to such. If uh inspection is refused, the city can't obtain a warrant to inspect. Uh there's some variance procedures for this. Um and this involves a couple different departments. Um any person who violates the noise level in land use districts um that's uh section u B1 and two in terms of decibel levels that's not already exempted by a permit or license can apply to the Columbus Board of Health for a variance. So the board looks at um factors such as practical difficulties, hardships, um especially the effect of uh strict compliance on business and if they can stay open and stay in business. There's a $100 application fee for this for each noise source, though there's an exemption for several fixed uh sources of noise on a single property. And the board uh shall make a decision within 30 days whether or not to grant this variance. Uh violators of any other portion of this section. Uh so we're looking at prohibited sounds can apply for a variance with the public safety director. uh they likewise must indicate um you know why compliance cannot be achieved and also what steps they're going to take to become compliant and a timeline for such. There's also a $100 application fee for this. Um the director must decide within 30 days whether or not to grant the variance uh issuance of orders. This basically just says that the health commissioner and safety director or a designate um may issue orders requiring abatement of any violations especially um those or even those with a issued permit or variance. Failure to act could result in the revocation of any permit issued under the chapter. So the penalty um a violation of the community noise code right now is a criminal offense enforceable by the division of police. Um, a single occurrence of this is a minor misdemeanor. Um, however, if an offender persists, um, this is the code language, persists in making loud and or rockous noise after a warning or requested assist, uh, the violation could be a fourthderee misdemeanor and repeat offenses are also fourthderee misdemeanors. Um, I will mention the um, this uh, code section has been um, amended slightly over the years, but has not had uh, an overhaul in quite a while. The most recent one was just this year to make um a little more explicitly clear um what considerations the board of health could take uh in issuing a variance uh inserting that specific uh considerations for um business a business staying open um was was put in there. So noise complaints in Columbus. Um so here specifically looking at uh complaints uh lodged with the division of police. Um this uh calls uh calls for service um through uh the division of police information from oru uh computer aated dispatch or CAD system. So in the past 10 years uh Columbus division of police has fielded over 93,400 calls in reference to noise complaints. Uh the vast majority of those are fielded through um the police non-emergency line. Uh when 911 calls are made, those are automatically routed to non-emergency. uh fewer than 1% of those were uh officer initiated um actions. Uh noise complaints overall uh yearbyear have been generally decreasing since 2012. Um 2012 there were um just under 11,000 versus uh last year there were um just under 7,400. So more complaints by far uh over the years. This is again looking you know 2012 to uh to the present. Um occurred in uh police precinct 4 uh more than any other precinct. Um this is probably uh let's see yeah 10,4759 complaints since 2012. 859 uh in 2021 alone. Uh this covers what you might think um OSU campus area top half of the short north bounded on the south by 3rd Avenue and Fifth by Northwest. Um there's a bit of a comparison chart over there about um this is noise complaints by precinct in 2021. Uh precinct 4 you'll see is by far the uh has the most complaints. Uh the next most were in um uh precinct 10 which covers actually uh far southwest um Columbus and then uh precinct 6 which is uh up uh east of um east and uh Blenden Woods up towards New Albany. downtown uh area in 2021 was actually um just kind of in the middle. So this is a general look at uh how noise complaints have trended since 2012. I had mentioned they have been steadily decreasing. Uh 2020 saw a little bit of a spike but generally going down. uh on pace this year uh actually to decrease again uh if it keeps up at the same pace. So it end up somewhere around around 6,800 complaints. Uh the most common time for folks to lodge these complaints is between uh 11:00 p.m. and midnight. That's 14% of all calls. 62% of complaints uh are made in those uh generally nighttime hours, 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Almost uh half of complaints are on the weekend, Friday to Sunday. though. Interestingly, uh Monday actually has a quite a few as well. It's the dead times kind of uh Tuesday and Thursday, I guess. And then um nearly half uh occur uh around abouts the summertime. So, um how are these complaints disposed of? How are they uh how are they handled? Um so, there's a few dispositions for how these cases can end up. Um the main two are basically uh a little less than half the time the contact is made by police andor uh the offending parties advised of the complaint. Uh little more than half the time about 52% uh either nothing uh was found or no contact made. Less than 1% of complaints resulted in a citation uh or a police report taken. And only 0.15% of cases uh 143 total since 2012 was there an arrest made. I got it relatively quick. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to talk. Let's see here. um [Applause] kind of based on based on these um last couple of well the last slide um go go a little bit further in when a resident is having an issue with a noise complaint like somebody's playing loud music early in the morning at this time. What is it that a resident should do? Should they call the non-emergency line? Should they call, you know, should they submit a 311 complaint? And who from the city would respond today as it stands? Um, that's to you, John. I think you might be best to answer that. Oh, um, yeah, I mean, currently, uh, the procedure would be to call, uh, the non-emergency line. Um, and like I had mentioned, if um, you know, if there was a a call into 911, that would, you know, automatically get routed back to, uh, the appropriate location. I know 311 doesn't have, um, a, uh, a specific uh, section or specific code for which you can select to report noise as as it's a criminal violation right now. Um, and I don't know if uh, typically how that um, would be handled in practice. Maybe um division of police can talk a little more about that. Sergeant Lepa, can you answer? So the uh if a resident contacts a non-emergency line reference a neighbor having loud music, our dispatch will receive the call. Uh they'll take that information down and that call for service will be prioritized. So, as a officer becomes available and is able to be dispatched, they'll respond out to that location uh with the attempt of uh making contact with the homeowner, the resident at that location, advise them of the uh complaint. Uh even if someone didn't leave their name or number, we'll still attempt to make contact and um just advise them of the of the noise and ask them to turn it down and educate them a little bit about it. and then uh we'll clear and usually that resolves that complaint for that shift until maybe tomorrow night or the next week. Then we'll go through the same process again. Talk about the challenges. I mean, I want to just set expectations. We hear it all the time, but first of all, you may respond in a few hours, and it's not because you don't want to respond, but there's many much more pressing issues that that your officers are responding to. And generally um how often do you go out and the noise has subsided or you know it's it's already gone away. I mean can you talk a little bit about that? Sure. Um yeah unfortunately on sat Fridays and Saturdays uh it appears u from the graph that's usually the busy the busy times. Um I work zone four uh which uh and deals with uh two precinct which is north lynen uh five precinct which is uh considered south lynen and uh I have uh personnel that work on three precinct which is uh just north of campus in Clintville and four precinct which is campus. Um, so a lot of the calls for service that are received for loud uh loud noise uh music for a resident on Friday or Saturday, it's very difficult to get there um within a timely manner um just because there's multiple calls for service which are higher priority uh which some of those may involve a shooting, a stabbing, a felonious assault and our personnel were driven towards a priority run. And um there may be times where an officer is available and we'll go out uh to that location and be able to make contact. Uh there's also times where if a uh the complaintant calls in and doesn't leave their name, number, and information, um we might not get to that till the following day, possibly depending on the calls for service and how that's prioritized. Can either one of you talk a little bit about um I I want to know specifically um based on your experience um about auto noise like mufflers loud m well loud music in cars anything that's related to a car um obviously we saw a lot of that in 20 and and spilled into 21 I think it subsided a little bit but how do we handle those complaints and you know you on special duty in the short north I mean what have you witnessed it And what do you do in those situations? It's um well, in reference to the uh vehicles playing loud music or um squealing of the tires, maybe excess of the muffler, the violation that there's been complaints received along North High Street. Um at times when we've been um asked to go down into the short north, we've been parking down there and we've been out on foot uh to be visible and to help uh patrol. Um there's been times where we would observe that violation of loud sounds coming from a motor vehicle. We'll approach that vehicle. We'll ask them to turn it down. Then they'll turn it down. And then probably two or three blocks later, they'll turn it back up. and I can't follow that vehicle down the road. Uh there may be a time where we'll issue a citation and um it's a it's a minor misdemeanor. I'm not sure what happens out of that. Uh where they just pay the fine or it's not a big deal. Um, and then there will be times where if we are in a cruiser and we like to make a stop, traffic stop for someone squealing their tires or even the loud sounds that car um, we went went through a hard time where the cars weren't stopping for us and they took off and we can't do anything then. So, we're kind of challenged at times with our enforcement for a traffic stop if that vehicle wishes to leave or if they do stop. Um, usually our preferred policy is just to give them a verbal advisement of the sounds and let them know about it and then usually that uh will correct itself for that that time of contact. Um, switch over a little bit. This might be Steve your question, but are are there permits that folks can use to host special events? um you know like for instance if OSU or the historic crew stadium they're they're going to have a concert do they or maybe I'm sorry if that's yours your your question but whoever wants to answer that there is a permit associated with it is that correct? Um uh so for um special events the uh this would be talking about uh on um city property. Uh the special events section of Columbus Reckon Parks would handle um permits for that. Um I'm talking about you know u events within the city limits. You know whether let's use because I hear this often with historic crew stadium. um the sound and sometimes the levels are probably exceeding what what is in the in the uh code at this point. Oh, Steve, I think he's getting he's if you can get that green light working. It takes a hard time. I think actually historically it's been Kathy's shop. There is a a noise permit you can get. It is event specific. So, it's not like Crew Stadium can get a blanket loud as we want to be forever. They can go in and say, "We're going to be hosting a concert on this day, this time. We would like to get a permit to basically be exempt from the noise ordinance." Uh there's a process where you you you you get petitions from neighbors, things like that. And I think Kathy could probably tell a little more about that. Thank you, Mr. Dunbar. Um Chairman Reie, Councilman Dorren, we do do a noise variance. We get several requests um over mainly in the summer, but starting spring into fall. they um they do have to go out and get 70% of the residential signatures within 1,000 ft of where the noise where the actual noise source is. So if it's you know one speaker in the middle of a big piece of property it's 1,000 ft around there and we we'll give them a map to give them approximate but there's no way we can go out and double check all those signature. We do know some have been turned in that we have rejected and they've had to go back out. um they were pretty obvious, but um we don't we just don't have the manpower to go out and check to see that those signatures and those addresses are exactly what they should be. And going back to enforcement, somebody violates that. I mean, whose responsibility is it to enforce? Well, that's the question with probably part of the problem because you know, we don't have a decibel meter to be able to do that type. That's a health that's where health comes in. So, um, they do they actually have decelers? They do. And they went out with us one night when we had gotten a complaint on the bar up on Flint Road. Um, and they went 1,000 ft away within 1,000 ft and um or distance away. I'm not sure. I wasn't there, but they did have to take a 60-minute reading and take the average of that. And it was folk night at at the bar. So it was a little more subdued music than they have been reporting. But I would guess that was somewhat of a extinuating circumstance in the sense that we're not geared for that type of enforcement right now, would you say? I mean like that that's like a special operation almost versus that is having some tactical people on the ground on a week and night to actually do this type of work. That would be correct. Okay. All right. Um and and so then I'll ask a zoning question a little bit here and council member Dors you might answer. But are are there we know this I'm kind of asking rhetorically, but you know the answer better than I do about zoning and and requirements for new construction um about noise reduction. We had a case earlier this year or was I think it was this year uh in regards to being next to a manufacturing plant. What are some of the concerns there? What have would have popped up as some of the issues? Well, and you know I don't know if uh Mr. Dunar who's handled some of these uh nuisance and baitman cases if you want to add anything to to my comments on this but you know Columbus is growing we know that we have more density within the city now than we ever have. So that means that there's going to be more people living next to whether or not it's commercial or industrial um you know activities compared to 10 or 15 years ago. Right? So we just we just know that the way that our zoning code is structured in which we have more development happening in areas of the city that are older that have these historical uh uses that are there. Um that that is a challenge when you people move in you know next to you know a longunning business that there's a consequence of you know create basically people coming to the nuisance but at the same time you know we need more housing in the city of Columbus. We we need more places for folks to live. Um, so that is certainly a challenge I think and this is maybe something that you can speak to Mr. Dunar is that when we have these long-term issues of a business that one of the contributing issues in a uh a case that comes before the environmental court is consistent noise, right? Um that is something that especially you know neighbors um you know have have issues with. How do we sort of approach that from a you land use policy? I mean that's something that as we look at um changes to our zoning code, whether or not we implement some noise mitigation standards within that code itself. And that's certainly something that um has come before you know Mr. Dunar in the environmental court as we've dealt with some of these things. So you know if you can speak to sort of noise mitigation itself as it relates to some of the cases that you've had in general um I think that would be helpful to contribute to this conversation. So um I mean a couple things and if you you think back to to John's PowerPoint about the code there's really two big buckets in in the noise code. One is the table of decibb. So that is to enforce that you need a machine and you're going to stand there for an hour to see how loud is this sound over a period of time. That works pretty well when we're talking about a piece of machinery at a plant um or or the type of thing that is sustained at a level over time. That works very well as long as we're only talking about during the day when the health department can send folks out there to sit by a machine over time. Those cases are pretty clear-cut for us. We will go to someone say, "Hey, they were out there with a machine. Here's how loud." property owner gets sound engineer someone like that they tweak whatever the machine is and we get there bucket A that is decibb that is during the day when we got a machine and and steady noise bucket B is I think most of what we're talking about here tonight and so that is um when you get into the residential commercial just general rules um yes the the the decibel meters apply there no one's out at 2 am with decibel meters and and the nature of the sound generally is not a consistent loud one hour like a piece of machinery would be. Um so then you know like it or not the police are the only ones around to have enforce that because we're all in bed and and then you get into the you know the situation that we were talking about where half the time they don't have anyone available to respond. Um so that you break down okay so now we're in this bucket that it is noise at night. Um, if that noise is coming from a residential piece of property, we've got a very bright line in the code. If you can hear it 50 feet from the property line, that's a violation. That doesn't mean they write everyone who could be heard 51 ft any more than they write everyone who's going 56 miles an hour. From my perspective, and I've been running this group now for for 10, 15 years, if you've got a bright line, you know the expectation. Here's how loud I can be if you're the neighbor. It ain't perfect, but it works relatively well. What we struggle with the most, and I think to your point is um if that noise is coming from a commercial piece of property, as our code is written right now, there's no bright line for anyone. The anyone who can enforce it at night, literally the legal standard is are you too rockus tonight? And uh that is the bucket we have struggled with overwhelmingly. And and to be perfectly honest, we have we're not able to bring a case based solely on noise when we're talking coming from a commercial place at night. Um you know, when you talk about, well, gee, you know, are they too loud? Are they unreasonable? There could be a couple hundred similarly situated houses. And if we've only got one or two people calling, that's tough. Um and you know, that that may not mean 99% of people are fine with it. they just don't want to wake up in the middle of night, call the police, and wait up all night. So, um, from my perspective, from the city attorney's office perspective, and I I will tell you, I was part of the the initial downtown sound group in 2012 when all this kind of started and and seeing all the growing pains. My perspective is that all parties, the commercial property, the residents, the police, if we had some sort of bright line from noise from a commercial property, um, and I'm not saying it's the same line, it's 50 ft like it is a house, but if there were something out there, people would adjust to it. And I think that that is a large part of what we saw from the dip in um in the calls over time. Um, what part of that was just the friction of of more residential and proximity to commercial, but um, from my perspective and working a lot with police, working a lot with all the different city departments, working a lot with business owners is the overwhelming frustration. Yes, we've got, you know, development growing side by side by side. If we could get a bright line, reasonable people can differ on where that line should be. that's why you all hold hearings and set something somewhere. But to me, that's the overwhelming frustration by all sides here is is there's no line and there's no understanding of who can enforce what. Um, again, when we're narrowing down to noise from a commercial place at night, thank you very much. I think it's very helpful to help set the stage for, you know, from we constantly are, you know, making changes to our code and then we tell folks like you, hey, go enforce it. Um, but I think it really matters when you talk about thinking through like when I hear rockus noise, like as a lawyer, I can't define that, right? Like maybe the sergeants here could they they know it when they hear it, right? Um, but like that does not give them a bright line to follow, right? Um, beyond the challenges of having people out at that time and prior prioritization of um response in which a lot of other things are happening. Um, so I I think as you know, Council Member Remy and I have sort of approached the subject, I think that bright line has jumped out at us and I think your comments are sort of a nail on the head as far as like thinking through that that piece of things. So thank you. Yeah, I mean I'll echo the 1910 definition of you know, but um you know that's part of the problem with some of our code and one of the challenges that we have as legislators to try to, you know, update it to a current version with with a definite line. And certainly, you know, you've heard me mention several times tonight about enforcement and that is an issue that, you know, not looking to burden the division of police with more duties uh when they're already, you know, short staffed and and taxed to deal with more serious issues. But how do we look at that moving forward? and we are a growing city and so there's there's likely to be some investment in staffing and and making sure that we're um providing the resources because again I don't think either of us have any intention of passing something that can never be enforced and so um you know I think we look at that lens through that lens u quite often. So appreciate the testimony this evening and and certainly uh want to move into speakers because we do have 18 public speakers and we've received 29 pieces of written testimony. So before I call our first speaker, here are some items from the written testimony received. We've had at least 16 submissions included uh they were talking about auto vehicle noise as a major concern. Um 12 submissions included nightclub and bar noise. Eight submissions included loud music. Two submissions discuss trash pickup at length, so um outside of hours, you know, like ear, you know, real early in the morning, especially in some of our downtown areas. And one listed construction noise as their main concern. We received written testimonies from downtown residents, German village residents, other neighborhoods, organization and property leadership, and from residents living in all parts of Columbus. Um, so for our first speakers, the way it's going to work because we are uh have so many um speakers, we're going to limit it to three minutes and we're going to be pretty uh tight on that. So um if you need extra time, you'll have to submit that in writing. So we want to keep people moving along. I'm going to ask u I'm going to announce the person that's speaking first and I'm going to tell who's next up in the list. So please be ready if you're the person that's next. Um and it's it's quite okay to stand over here on the side to wait to speak um just to make sure that we're moving things along. So we are going to start off with um Eric Hill. I'm going to ask you to state your name, your address, and any organization that you may represent. So Eric Hill, you're up. Betsy Pandora, you're next. Come on up uh to the speaker. Make sure that green light's on, and you uh please adjust the mic to your height as well. that makes it um helpful when we're uh broadcasting. So, Eric Hill, the floor is yours. Uh my name is actually Eric Jolio. Um and uh I live in the Short North. Um what other piece of information, I'm sorry, did you need from me? Is that a good All right. Good evening. Um yeah, I'm an 18-year resident of the Short North. I've lived just off of High Street the entirety of that time. As such, my testimony will focus on my experience in the Short North and the relatively new issues we are facing. First, I'd like to express my gratitude to the city for hearing our pleas as residents in attempting to identify solutions. Having said that, while this proposal may very well be a necessary part of the solution, I see this as another example of reactionary punitive governance as opposed to being proactive and accepting the city's own responsibility in allowing the neighborhood to develop into what it has become. This is no longer the reborn short north success story that received glowing reviews from the New York Times and National Graphic Travel. instead has become oversaturated with late night establishments, many with owners displaced from campus and Park Street. So, I ask that a city consider how many liquor licenses, outdoor patios, and late night party places, is too much for one neighborhood. Let's not also forget that this neighborhood is fully encompassed within historic districts. My home's 114 years old, a similar age to most homes in the neighborhood, most original homes. And while I understand the city's temptation around tax revenue, I urge the city to consider the offsets and cost aside from quality of life issues now making it semi- intolerable to live in the neighborhood at times of the year. And aside from all the violence and death and the city's costs around those institutions, you also have the cost of set of repeatedly flooding the neighborhood with police. We don't need most every new business here to be open until midnight or later to bring in tax revenue. That's not the authentic city neighborhood. I moved into and it's simply not worth it. In addition to considering smart density and development practices, I suggest the city consider penalties not just on the business owners, but their property owners as well. If the property owners had some responsibility here, they likely give more consideration to the types of businesses they lease to and the rules they apply to those businesses. Finally, I asked the city to consider the practicality of enforcing its noise ordinances, particularly in the late night hours, as well as the risks associated with increased police interactions for the safety of police and the public alike. I urge the city to consider methods enforcement that limits police interaction for non-dangerous activities. That's not an anti- police concern. I have former police in my family, one of whom died in the line of duty at during a traffic stop of all things, and I am pro-safety for all involved. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much, and I apologize for mispronouncing your name, Betsy. Next up is Jason Mack. Thank you, members of council, for holding tonight's hearing. Um, it's important to local businesses and residents and community leaders and advocates that we have this opportunity to come together to discuss these important issues which matter to how we keep our entire city safe and vibrant and prosperous. My name is Betsy Pandora. I'm the executive director of an organization called the Short North Alliance. Our offices are at 1181 Mount Pleasant Avenue in the Short North. and I'm appreciative of the opportunity to be here to speak to you today about these topics and their impact on the Short North Arts District. As an organization, the Short North Alliance helps to provide program services and support to our vibrant community of over 300 predominantly small businesses, nearly 10,000 workers they employ, and the thousands of residents that call the Short North Arts District home and the millions of annual visitors who deeply care about our community. Today, I'd like to provide some context around the need for additional support that will enhance our current collaborative work with the city of Columbus on safety partnerships as we begin to discuss potential changes to ordinances around noise and uh vending. Uh these things are very important to those who live, work, and visit the Short North. And I want to start by uniting us under one common goal. The safety, inclusion, and well-being well-being of all of us. To accomplish that goal, we must first closely examine the challenges we face and the progress we've made to date. On the safety front, as leaders uh involved in the short crime and addiction program in partnership with the city of Columbus, uh the team uh some of whom you've heard from tonight have made over 550 safety incident interventions this year alone. Like you, we believe that one incident is too many. And that's why we must dig into the root causes and risk factors and ways to mitigate potential safety concerns. If you look deeper at these incidents, we notice two large themes. Most occur late at night and they occur when pedestrian counts are high. from the beginning of the year to what we would consider our peak season through say mid August. Uh our incident data shows that 67% of those incidents occur after midnight and uh nearly 25% of those incidents have occurred through our peak season uh near to food carts or where there are very large gatherings of people. Statistically, we see higher increases in crime in the neighborhood when more people gather. And there are a variety of factors that that may play into those statistics. It's really our job to try and come up with strategies and solutions as city leaders and as community members to mitigate as much as possible. Uh the number of businesses and activities available late at night has grown substantially in the short north, increasing by 62% since 2015. So we must acknowledge that there's more that uh needs to be done to support these issues. Late at night, noise is a challenge, too. Uh this last year we had over 400 noise complaints in 2021 during peak season alone. We instituted the short north good neighbor pledge program as collaborators with the city and in doing so we saw a reduction. So addressing noise um through ordinances can be an incredible way for us um to make a bigger impact in terms of quality of life and moving forward. We think these are important things that merit strong consideration and we're happy to continue to play a role in collaborative leadership with the city on this. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's Miss Pandora for your comments. Jason Mack, you're up. Me happy you're up next. Good evening. My name is Jason Mack. I am here today representing representing the AC Hotel Columbus downtown adjacent north market. I've been a downtown hotel general manager for the past 10 years and been witness to the explosive development that has positioned our beloved city as a vibrant tourist destination within a six-hour drive of over half of the US population. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak here today about an important issue affecting our community as it threatens uh our standing as a go-to tourist destination and undercuts economic growth potential. We opened in June of 2021 at a great time at a time of great turmoil in our industry and the world at large. Since opening, the hotel ranks fourth out of 106 hotels in North America for staff service metrics as our Midwestern hospitality approach continues to yield accolades from Marriott International and loyalty from guests from around the world. Despite our success, we're constantly looking for ways to improve. Guest satisfaction surveys are sent to every departing guest asking for their feedback, a program we review daily looking for trends and opportunities. About 3% of our 32,000 occupied rooms this year have responded. Of those 920 survey responses, 168 or 18% have expressed negative sentiment. Of those 168 uh they specifically cite loud noise in their ver verbatim responses. This bear is worth repeating. One out of every two respondents site loud and/or noise in their response. I'd like to read a few of these uh to make my point. Uh great hotel, great location. Then the staff was spot on. Unfortunately, we didn't get any sleep due to the extremely loud music next door. Music goes until 3:00 a.m. Otherwise, love the hotel. Your hotel is beautiful and clean. Staff was friendly and helpful. City is awesome, but the outside noise was so awful. Bar across the street was so loud until 3:00 a.m. Motorcycles driving their engines all night. The establishments that are directly responsible are as follows: Callahanss at 520 Park Street. Howl at the Moon, 504 Park Street, Park Street Cantina, 491 Park Street, and Gas Works at 487 Park Street. We are asking city council to consider legislation to have the current archaic noise thresholds updated and more importantly to dedicate financial resources to ongoing enforcement up to and including revocation of liquor licenses for continued offenders. the 75 employees at AC Columbus who work tirelessly to ensure Columbus is revered on the national stage. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much, Mr. Mack. Uh Meline Mappy, and then Larkin Cleland. Thank you very much. Um thank you for letting me speak. I'd like to address the food card issue. My name is Meline Mafy. I own a property at 1128 North High Street. I also own and operate a retail antique shop at this location. This month marks 43 years in business. So for four decades, I have personally experienced the ever evolving place known as the Short North. There are seven apartments located above my retail space. And over the years, the tenants have come to terms with increased nighttime activity. They could usually count on nightife quieting down when the bars closed around 2:30. But for the past few years, small mobile food carts started appearing on our sidewalk just below tenant windows. On the weekends, long noisy lines form. People then sit on the sidewalk or in the flower beds to eat, many leaving greasy food and trash. Our new streetscape sidewalks are now a permanently stained embarrassment. My sisters and I spend every weekend morning picking up food cart trash, scrubbing grease, and vomit. The tenants regularly complain of noise and fights that occur many times well until after 4:00 a.m. Even if the food carts leave at 3, which they don't always, the crowds do not. There has been a shooting around the food carts. And as many of you know, one of our Short North restaurant managers died as a result of an assault in front of one. That altercation occurred at 2:30 a.m. I feel that closing down at midnight would seem more reasonable time for avoiding late night drunken troubles. If the food cart numbers, their location, and hours of operations could be more fairly regulated, the safety and quality of life in the short north would be greatly enhanced. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Miss Mafy. We appreciate your testimony. Lark and Cleland and then Prennav Padman Naban. Hello. Um, thank you for having me. Uh, my name is Logan Cleland. I live at 309 East 11th. Um, so in the University District. I'm a student at OSU. Um, and Councilman Member Dorens, you said you haven't been out in the Short North very much at 2 am recently. I'm someone who has been. Um, and we thought we'd sort of give that perspective. Um, so I heard about this ordinance, um, talked to some of the vendors, um, who I've become friends with. I also I study Arabic at the at the university, so have become friends with them that way. Gathered up a group of students and we took two Friday nights last month. Um, and walked the length of uh, High Street from Lane Avenue to First. Um, counted 15 vendors uh, along the way. Um, interviewed 12 of them. Um, and just wanted to sort of tell you what we found. Um, so from 10 p.m. to 3:00 am, um, what we're seeing, vendors serving food, obviously, to some very drunk people. Um, but in general, they're the ones kind of dealing with the issues when fights happen. They're they know a lot of the people um who are going by and when fights do break out, they're um, you know, saying, you know, okay, it's fine. take take someone aside. Um, and sort of I mean, in general, they're really the only sober and responsible adults that are on High Street at that time. It's really sort of us, the students who are causing issues. Um, and especially when the bars close at 2 a.m. and the special duty police officers leave, the bouncers leave, they really are the only sober um, people there. Um, in general, we also saw that uh that most of the noise, the congregations after 2:00 a.m., after even the street carts closing at 2:30, 2:45, pretty much everyone still there is waiting for Ubers. And that's where we see a lot of the people sitting on the sidewalk, uh, you know, waiting for their Ubers, waiting for lifts to get home. Um, I'd also just like to add that the vendors have been there for forever, for 5, 10, 15, 20 years in some cases. Um, and I think you'll probably hear from some of them, but this is sort of the primary source of their livelihoods. um for a lot of them and they emphasize to us um that they make 70% of their money between 130 and 245ish when they have to shut down u or start shutting down to uh be able to be out of there by 3 and not get a citation. Um and sort of just as a last point um we call it street meat affectionately as students and it's sort of an essential part of campus culture. Um and uh I think Columbus wouldn't be the same um without it. So my personal view is that if you want to solve these issues um it's not the street vendors who are causing them and that's not the place to look. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Cleland. So what street mean in my day too. I just want to say thanks for coming down. I mean that one of the things is getting the multiple perspectives. So I want to appreciate the fieldwork and appreciate you coming down and testify. Thanks. Same here. Pranad Pad Manaban and then Sherry Bagen. Good evening and thank you all for your time. Um my name is Pranav Podmanabin and I'm a student at Ohio State. I'm one of the other students who went along with Larkin on the little 2 a.m. ethnography that we did. So I'm here to provide um another perspective from the students. Um, so I I think we're all here because we care about safety. So I want to say that reducing the hours that food vendors can operate and shutting them down at 2 a.m. will actually actively make the city less safe. Uh, when we heard about the proposal, we traveled along the length of High Street. We interviewed food vendors along with customers of the vendors and we found that not only are the vendors a valuable and beloved part of city culture that makes us who we are, but they also serve a vital role in public safety as the first line of defense. Um, so I want to read a quote from one vendor we talked to um who said, "As somebody who's been here for 15 years, they know everyone who passes. Um, if you're a cop in here for 3 months or half a year, you don't know everybody. Um, but the food carts do. They know homeless people, they know who is coming, they know a lot. Um, and they also said that if the cops ask uh to cooperate, maybe we can help them. Um, as the only permanently sober people who are regularly on the street between when the bars close and when people are waiting for their Ubers to take them home, food vendors have experienced deescalating situations and they know how to handle drunk students. Um, we also took recordings when we were walking down High Street. And what we found is that the cause of the loudest noise was not the vendors, um, but it was the bars and the loud cars, um, and people waiting on the street for Ubers as the night was winding down. Um, so scapegoating food vendors as the source of the problem is just inaccurate and will end up causing more harm than good. Um, to read another quote from a different vendor we talked to, uh, they said, 'I think about this place like Switzerland. Uh, I don't want no beef. I don't want no fights. Uh, you're here to get food, I'm here to sell it. If you want to have a good conversation, if I don't have a line, yeah, that's cool. I'm like your bartender, but instead of selling alcohol, I'm selling food. The vendors are a stabilizing and quite literally a sobering influence on the community, and they play a crucial role, especially after 2 a.m. when they're at their busiest, and there's really nowhere else for people who are leaving the bars to go. So, closing them down early will not lead to fewer drunk people on the streets, but it will make them hungry, annoyed, and unoccupied, which I'm sure none of us want. Um, so thank you again for your time. Um, I urge you to reconsider this proposal to limit the food vendor's hours and save the street meat. Thank you very much. We appreciate your testimony. Um, I do want to note that um, although there has been proposed legislation that has been brought to us by the administration and there are certainly good pieces in it. We are not necessarily discussing that legislation tonight. We're here to listen and learn. And so what has been proposed may not be anything near what what has passed. And I just wanted to reiterate that that's why we hold these hearings to hear from the public from all different sides of the um of the community. Our next speaker apparently has left uh Sher Beagan and so we're going to John Allen and then Lisa Defender is up after that evening. Um, my name's John Allen. I own the Short North Tavern, uh, 674 North High Street. I in a couple of months we'll be c celebrating 42 years of having it. Um, I was the first one to ever use the name Short North and very involved over the first 20 25 years of from the time we started it the area and what I'm seeing I dealt as president of the business association many years ago. I dealt with teenage prostitution in the area during the late 80s and into the 90s. we had is when cocaine became popular and being in a bar business you dealt with dealt with that and over all those years there were other problems from part parking to oh I got a whole list of it here but it's part of revitalizing an old neighborhood commercial strip particularly and what I'm seeing and hearing about now is going has the potential and is already doing great damage to the reputation of the area. And given when we got it all these years, convention center being expanded, that counting and all the new hotels and and what have you, and people coming in for football games and staying downtown and coming up through that area and just people visiting Columbus. It's like the short north is ranked in national rankings of revitalized commercial areas and how good it is. And that is all on the verge of being damaged severely because the whole reputation of the area is on the line now with what's going on. I'm not sure where to tell you exactly other than food carts are part of it and people are drunk. I've seen a lot of drunk people in my years being out here. And when they're coming out and then they're going to go party some more out on the street, but there's no security. It's not like being in the tavern where they you start a fight, somebody's going to break it up, toss your butt outside. It's like they can chase each other down. You got cars coming around playing loud music and they're there. And if there's no food carts out there, it like close them up at midnight as far as I'm concerned. But being out there where you got people running around doing what's going on at 3:00 and later in the morning, plus it's a mixed residential comm. There's people live up there. Thanks. Thank you very much, Mr. Allen. We appreciate it. uh Lisa Defender and then Brian Swanson. Council member Reie and Dorren, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony at tonight's meeting regarding the noise code. My name is Lisa Defender. I oversee operations at Capital Crossroads and Discovery Special Improvement Districts. Our office is at 23 North Fourth Street downtown. The SIDS, as you know, represent over 750 downtown property owners. Because the SIDs provide direct line services downtown, residents, commercial property owners, businesses, and others often call us first when they're frustrated with issues, particularly when it relates to quality of life issues like excessive noise. Over the past several years, we've received numerous noise complaints related to nightclubs and daytime protests. Our downtown residents have no illusions about living in a noisy urban center. They readily acknowledge that they expect to hear honking horns, loud voices, sirens, and other noises at night, but um they uh do not, however, want to be kept awake at night at 3:00 a.m. by nightclub noise, blaring car stereoss, and squealing tires. representatives from virtually every condo and apartment complex um downtown have reached out uh to our office including the Atlas Apartments, Brunson Condominiums, Aid on the Square, the Nicholas, the Citizen, 60 Spring atrium Lofts and Exchange Lofts and um they highlighted some like three main points. One is unreasonable levels of sound from inside clubs that can be heard blocks away by people inside residential properties and hotels, even when windows are closed, even when white noise machines are on, and even when earplugs are worn. Uh, secondly, vibrations from club sound systems that rattle residents windows. And then thirdly, patrons entering and exiting the club are loitering around the club during late night and early morning hours with extremely loud vehicular sound systems and motorcycles. Um uh a a gentleman over at Exchange Urban Lofts noted that there have been several instances where people leave the Exo Club at closing time and continue puttering in nearby surface parking lots. He indicated that music blares from car stereoss, cars circling the block squealing tires and revving engines, and frequently drive along the wrong way down one-way streets. And this behavior often lasts until 4:00 a.m. All three of these issues are related to nightclubs that have become a neighborhood nuisance. Additionally, commercial and residential property managers have reached out with concerns related to daytime protests that use amplification and/or utilize blaring horns as they protest. You might recall there were uh some semi trucks, flatbed trucks around Capitol Square um in the summertime blaring their noise uh their horns for several hours. So very disruptive to to those office workers in particular who were trying to retract to come back downtown. Um in order to encourage dense mixeduse development in downtown, the city needs a proactive tool to address potential nuisances from clubs and more effective tool to respond to club related disorder in a timely manner. Sid staff encouraged the city to consider establishing standards and a licensing system for bars and nightclubs. The license could define a set standard standards that clubs must adhere to to maintain their license and allow the city to quickly react if clubs are not adhering to the standards. At a minim minimum, the standards could address the concerns I shared previously in my testimony. Um, we welcome the opportunity to work with your office and your staff. Um, and uh, one thing I I want to mention with with Steve Dunar, what he mentioned as far as, you know, kind of a line in the sand or particular distance. Um, I think that's an outstanding idea. Um, because it so um, better defines something as far as uh, problematic as opposed to unreasonable level or rockous noise. So, I think that's a great suggestion. So, thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight. Thank you so much, Miss Deepend Diver, Brian Swanson, and then Adam Wallace. Um, thank you, council members. My name is Brian Swanson. Um, I've lived in the Short North for a long time. I now live in Warthingington. I own uh Bristol Republic and Bodega, which are both restaurants and bars located in the Short North. Um, also have a good number of rental properties in the Short North as well. Um, and yeah, you know, just like others have said, um, I'm in the area a lot. I'm in the area late. I'm in the area early. I constantly kind of analyze the area and I deal with a lot of these problems that happen late night. Um, a lot of the problems that do happen late night outside of our establishment are related to food carts and just gathering at the food carts very late hours. I mean, you've got a lot of drunk people coming out the same time. Um, they're all trying to c congregate on around one cart and that's when fights and things break out. Um there's lots of loud noise coming from those areas too. You know, I I have tenants that live above some of these businesses and there's the food carts down below and there is a lot of noise that comes from them. Um so, you know, I don't think it's an issue of of banning food carts. I I think that they are helpful for people that want to eat, but I do think that there does need to be some sort of time limit on these things. Um 3:00 is entirely too late. Um I think a midnight to 1:00 a.m. would be great. Um, and they need to regulate where they're at. Um, you know, I I I'm not sure if they are right now or how that needs to be done, but I think that's a big issue. Um, I was outside of Bristol closing down. Um, you know, this past Saturday at at at 2:45 in the morning and there was a food cart on this side of our patio and a food cart on this side of our patio. Both of them with just tons of people congregating around them, not even buying food. Um, just sitting out there kind of eating, hanging out. our staff does not feel safe leaving walking to their cars. Um, you know, our our patio's covered in trash after we've already cleaned it up and our staff has gone home. Um, and there's been many, many fights that happen outside of our establishment from guests that never came into our establishment. And a lot of guests who aren't even 18 or aren't even 21 years of age or can come into our establishment. They're just people out there kind of loiting around. So, I I think they are a little bit of a nuisance. I think they're, you know, good to have in some spots, but I think they they just need to be regulated a little bit. Um, I think is is is the main issue. Um, thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you very much, Mr. Wallace. Appreciate it. Or I'm sorry, Swanson. Now, Adam Wallace, am I right? Am I Am I on the right track? Okay. And Mark Wood, you're up next. Hello, my name is Adam Wallace. I own uh several food carts and also Eden Food Truck. Um, there isn't any current data or precedent for the new suggested legislation. The city of Columbus is trying to link crime and late night vending and believes that shorter hours reduce the possibility and also plans to condense carts into food vending zones. All of what I just said is still hearsay because the city of Columbus has not released any rough drafts to shareholders yet. We're here at a public hearing. There is however plenty of data from much larger cities like New York, New York, Los Angeles, California, and guess what? Street vendors haven't been linked to an increase of crime, but play a part in decreasing crime. The Wall Street Journal wrote an article titled, "Police vendors on the same team. Street food vendors serve as the eyes and ears of the police." Years back, food vendors foiled this Times Square bomb plot because they had eyes and ears on the street. A city without street meat isn't a safer street. In fact, the New York City council just approved legislation that would double the number of permits in New York. Uh the the council member Margaret Chin, the bill's le lead sponsor, said food vendors give us an opportunity to taste food from around the world and we need to support them. This will give hope and opportunity to a lot of hardworking street vendors. It'll allow more eyes on the street, less climb, see something, say something. Facts. With regard to pollution and crime, research shows that street vendors themselves are often not the source. On the contrary, conscientious vendors work hard to keep their stalls clean and preserve and provide eyes and ears to help deter crime in the streets. After spending 5 years with street vendors in New York City, sociologist Michael Dunier concluded that not only do the vendors abide by the codes and the norms, but mostly their presence on the street enhances the social order. They keep their eyes upon the street instructor sidewalk life. of the of the sidewalk of life encourage them support one another. What we have is what I've just stated is data based on some facts. The solution to the problem to the short north could very well be the opposite of the proposed agenda. The city needs to increase the number of food carts in the Short North along with the number of businesses that they've increased so that we can handle the increased volume faster, extend our hours of operations so that we can continue to be the eyes and ears of the police. We are invested in the communities that we serve and data shows that in 2018 the state of California passed the safe sidewalk the safe sidewalk vending act and mandates that California municipalities cannot determine where street food vendors can operate unless there's a health and safety or welfare concern preventing municipalities from making rules and regulations that would prohibit or cause food vending to be inhibited and not that would be detrimental to food carts but and instead is to allow for food carts to flourish. ish Rudy Espinosa, executive director of inclusive action for the city and nonprofit said that many cities are missing the benefits of supporting street vendors. Sellers tend to source their products locally, use pebble transfer to pay used for commercial kitchens. They also make public spaces safer and attract new customers neglected to commercial co-workers. Food carts are here to stay. We love them. Embrace us and please don't change the legislation to make it harder for us to thrive. Thank you very much, Mr. Wallace, Mark Wood, and then Tyler Johnson. Hi, council members. Thank you very much for your willingness to recognize concerns impacting quality of life in our neighborhoods and your willingness to work with the community to establish new standards that better serve their needs. Decades of sweat equity, love, and dedication by local stakeholders to better their community has resulted in the Short North becoming a destination that has culturally enriched our city. The transformation of the Short North has been a grassroots effort with neighborhood stakeholders taking ownership for what their neighborhood would become, a collaborative effort by neighborhood businesses and homeowners focused on improving their community. Establishing a successful and sustainable mixeduse community doesn't happen easily, nor is it sustainable without commitment and leadership. It has required commitments from stakeholders over decades and its continued success will depend on maintaining that same level of commitment. As hard as it is to build up a successful urban community, it can be torn apart much too quickly. For several years, many of us in the community have been expressing concerns about a trend of late night activity that results in excess street noise radiating from area nightclubs and bars. bar patrons loitering along the street after bars close. An excess number of late night food carts who serve drunken and noisy patrons. The late night atmosphere has become an attractive backdrop for many looking for quote a scene where they can cruise High Street late at night with loud music radiating from their vehicles or loitering around their parked cars. The late night atmosphere is in conflict with residents expectations of peaceful and quiet enjoyment of their home and has also become a backdrop for street confrontations resulting in fights that have led to deadly violence. We are asking for policies that respectfully maintain a balance between business vibrancy and livability. We have been advocating for new noise ordinances that requires establishments to keep noise confined to the four walls of their premises and policies that greatly reduce the number of street vendors and limit their hours of operation. On too many occasions, residents living in our properties have asked to be released from their lease because late night nor street noise is not tolerable or because concerns about violence. The fundamentals of a successful mixeduse neighborhood neighborhood depend upon an enriched residential living experience. And that experience is being undermined by those who are capitalizing on the many years of hard work by area stakeholders by operating late night businesses that do not respect the neighborhood and which largely operate at the expense of the neighborhood. We are at a crossroads and have a responsibility to preserve the years of work, dedication, and care that's gone into making the Short North a special community where customers feel safe, patronizing businesses and where people want to call home. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Wood. We appreciate the testimony. Tyler Johnson and then uh I think make sure Medad Moar is still here or not here. Um we'll see you in a moment. Mr. Johnson, go ahead. Hello, my name is Tyler Johnson. I'm from the Ohio State University. I'm a student with Larkin and Prennav who have worked on this project interviewing street vendors and students and traveling the area at night. Um so what we found was a variety of things. I'm going to try to like go through a list of different perspectives I found and present them here. First, we found that as mentioned earlier, um, street vendors have been here for a long time. On average, we found that the street vendors we talked to had been here for 11 years and the longest one that we had the longest vendor had been 20 years of service here in the city. Um and from that perspective it is clear as mentioned earlier that these street vendors have been around while the streets are changing and the city is changing the street vendors remain a constant and that's one of the things that we find really important. If things are changing and there's only one constant I think it's hard to claim that they're the ones causing said changes. Additionally, I'd like to speak on behalf of Ohio State students in general because students love street meat. It's simple. We talked to a lot of students and the students overwhelmingly said they love street meat. Students had their own personal vendors who they' known and became friends with. One quote I have includes that Ohio State would not be Ohio State without street meat. And that view, that sentiment was shared by many students. Finally, I would like to look over um the perspective of the street vendors themselves. Um, we talked to 12 street vendors as Larkin mentioned earlier and they all agreed that this is their livelihood. This is their number one money maker and changing hours, which I know has not been officially recommended or suggested yet, would in theory cost a lot of them their jobs. This is their number one economic source of income. And they reported that the hour between 2 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. was the hour in which they were most profitable. So cutting back from that would cost a lot of them their jobs and would probably kill the industry in the area. That's all I got. Thank you. Certainly appreciate that. Is uh Medit Moar here? Let the record reflect that he is not in attendance. Mozz Elbana. Which one? Okay. Uh good evening. Um I work in the short north area for 14 years and um I only witnessed two crimes. I don't know uh why we get blamed for all this violence around us. Uh first of all uh most of our income between 130 and 245. If the city of Columbus decide to cut our hours, we'll lose at least 80% of our profits or income. Um all the fights and shooting and violence always start by bars, not by food carts. People gather inside the bars, not around the food cart, and then they go outside and start fighting. Our bad luck to be in the front of the bar. We sell food, not alcohol. We did not get those guys intoxicated and bush him to start the violence. We are mobile restaurant and not right to single our our group of restaurant and blaming us for the violence. Violence has started after people get intoxicated and have been inside or outside around the bar area. Focusing on food court remover or changing or limiting the hours of operation will not solve the problem because we are not the reason of the violence. The city of Columbus is blaming the innocent party and single us out of this matter. The only solution to solve this problem is increasing the presence of the police around short area and the high street. As Miss Kathy Collins mentioned this 265 license and if the hours change all this will families will be affected and get harmed for the cutting the hours of operation. Um, I advise the city of Columbus not to change the hours and keep it keep it at was but increase the police presence in high street. Changing the codes will harm all the food cart owner, their workers and their contractors. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Mozz Albana. You are I'm sorry. Okay. We I didn't hear you say it at the beginning. So, appreciate that. Our next speaker is Mohamad Msad and then Ron Aras. Is Mohamad Msadi here? All right. Let the record reflect he is not in the attendance. Ron Areas, are you in attendance? And then finally, oh, everybody else canled. All right. So, I think we've made it through. Did anybody else have a slip in that did not get called? All right, perfect. Well, I'd like to thank all of you for your testimony this evening. Um, before I close, I'd like to offer Council Member Dorren the opportunity to say a few words. Uh, thank you, Chair Remy. Appreciate everyone who took the time out of their day to come down to testify. We heard from a number of different perspectives both on the mobile food cart and also on the on the noise issue with with regard to the noise ordinance. I think, you know, this is a complicated uh application of of of of the code as it relates to noise. And I think we've heard from a number of folks tonight the complications of that as it relates to its consequences out in neighborhoods right now. And I think there's no easy solution to that. I think this council is trying to um figure out the best way to put a, you know, meaningful response to some of these concerns out in the community while also recognizing sort of the the challenges of resource allocation on a day-to-day basis, right? Um, and to Councilman Reie's point, you know, if we're going to pass something or make changes, we want to make sure that that is something that can be clearly enforced in the community. And also at the same time, there's community expectations of what what their behavior is. Um, so look forward to continuing these discussions here um, internally at council and certainly as stakeholders out in the community. I know both council member Remy and myself will be open to additional discussions down the line. So, thank you very much for for being here tonight. Yes, I echo those those comments. Our offices will take any further um communications that may relate to either noise or the mobile food vending. Um you can reach out to Jeffrey Carter W at JD Carter Columbus.gov. That's J. Darter Columbus.gov or LucyFrank LJFrank Columbus.gov. I'd like to end this hearing by thanking each of our presenters uh this evening. Kathy Collins, John Oswald, Steve Dunar, Sergeant Lepa, Sergeant Cermode. Thank you to each of our public speakers for taking the time out of your schedule to come in and make your voice heard and everyone who submitted written testimony. As we continue forward with both mobile food vending and noise, there are many folks on the council team who are helping with this effort. Thank you to each of you. Thank you to my team, Jeffrey Carter and Lucy Frank, Nia Haristen and communications, Mark Carter for our technology needs and the CTV team for their assistance in preparing for this hearing this evening. I also want to thank the community for their support for tuning in to tonight's hearing. This is only the beginning of the conversation and like we said, uh we will have we anticipate at least one more public hearing on mobile food vending later this year. We will be sharing those details at a later date once we have that set. We're trying to uh balance a number of budget uh hearings and others that um are taking up a lot of our time, but we will have another hearing this year. And as far as noise code, it is going it is very comprehensive and complex. Um so as we rethink and revision noise in the city of Columbus, we anticipate numerous opportunities for community engagement in 2023. Thank you everyone. Stay safe and have a great evening.