FAIRHOPE, Ala. - During the city’s monthly public participation meeting this week, Fairhope resident Jim Horner, who lives near Fly Creek Cafe, said the city’s newhttp://www.cofairhope.com/pdf/ord1443.pdf”>noise ordinance is not working.

“It’s actually promoting louder noise,” said Horner, citing half a dozen times in the past three months that music from the nearby waterfront restaurant-bar interfered with his family’s peaceful enjoyment of their home.

Horner has been a persistent critic of the cafe’s amplified music.

Adopted by the council in December, the ordinance requires the use of a decibel meter to measure noise violations.

Horner said the daytime maximum of 85 decibels permitted until 10 p.m. should be reduced to 60 or 65 decibels.

After 10 p.m., the maximum drops to 50 decibels.

At recent public meetings, those seeking lower decibel levels were in a distinct minority, with most audience members supporting the Fly Creek Cafe and other downtown businesses that some argued have been targets of anti-noise efforts.

When police measured the sound audible at Horner’s house this past July 10 weekend, the decibel level fell between 68 and 72, he said at the July 11 meeting.

“Most evenings it is under control,” he said, responding to Councilwoman Debbie Quinn’s comment that the Fly Creek restaurant owner told her they were keeping the sound under the 85 decibel level.

“But it penetrated every room in our house,” Horner said of the legal limit measured this past weekend.

Councilman Mike Ford, who cast the single vote against the ordinance last year, said he lived about a mile from the restaurant and did visit there this past weekend.

“It was extremely loud,” Ford said. “I’ve had some phone calls about it. I know we need to do something about the amplified bass.”

The current ordinance is the latest of several efforts the city has made during the past two years to address noise issues in the city. Other residents have complained of amplified music from a few downtown restaurant-bars, and several public meetings were held with business owners, residents and city leaders prior to adoption of the initial ordinance.

Horner said he lives in a residential neighborhood with noise expectations different than in the downtown area, where efforts have been made in recent years to encourage a vibrant business district, with a mix of residential and commercial uses.