By Lookout Staff

December 6, 2010 -- The City Council could vote on Tuesday to soften the noise at the Third Street Promenade and other areas featuring street performers. The council is scheduled to vote on a proposal from City staff about a new method of noise enforcement. Also, new rules regarding public safety and definitions of who is a street performer will be on the table.

The City currently determines whether there is excessive noise based on the decibel level. This can be difficult to measure for various reasons. Also, the City cannot ban amplified music due to a recent ruling by a federal judge that tossed such a prohibition by the City of Los Angeles.

The City Attorney’s Office is proposing that the council approve a policy modeled after one in San Francisco that amplified sound “shall not be unreasonably loud, raucous, jarring or disturbing to persons of normal sensitiveness within the area of audibility."

“It is recommended because, though it is specific to amplified sound, it has been upheld in court,” City Attorney Marsha Moutrie wrote in the staff report. “And, it would give enforcement personnel an alternative means of controlling unreasonably loud noise generated through amplification. Both this limit on amplified sound and the existing decibel standards would apply to all individuals and businesses on the Promenade and Transit Mall.”

Also included in the proposal is a ban on setting up equipment or performing within 10 feet of a residence and near the entrances and exits of the pier. Moutrie wrote that the equipment and the crowds that gather often block pier ingress and egress.

“This situation raises significant concerns because the entrances to and exits from the pier are limited and narrow, and the crowds on the pier are often extremely large,” she wrote. “These facts can make it difficult for visitors to leave and for safety personnel to access the pier during emergencies.”

Also on the issue of public safety, the proposal includes a feature that people not be allowed to perform with or display/distribute more equipment than can be removed "all at once within three minutes". Moutrie wrote that this “mirrors average safety response time.”

The proposal also calls for a requirement that people remain with their equipment at all times. Current City law only prohibits people from leaving equipment unattended. So if people have to leave, they sometimes ask others to watch the equipment as a favor or for a small fee.

“Safety personnel believe that someone watching equipment as a favor or for a small tip is unlikely to take the time to remove it during an emergency,” Moutrie wrote. “In contrast, an owner likely would.”

Lastly, on the issue of public safety, the proposal includes a prohibition on anybody convicted of a sexual offense against a minor from performing or doing any other activity "on public property to entice minors to congregate around that person." Recently, a man convicted of child molestation had been dressing as Spiderman and accepting money to have his picture taken with children.

Additional portions of the proposal contain language on the definition of a street performer and others who are allowed to distribute material or related activities on the Promenade