Cafe owner and neighbor verbally spar over noise

A spat over amplified music offered at a local Café, one that involved a local resident and the manager of the Sunset Avenue business, broke out during last week’s Westhampton Beach Village Board meeting, preceding the board’s decision to deny the Café’s request for an outdoor music permit.

Additionally, Westhampton Beach Mayor Conrad Teller noted that, due to a large number of complaints about excessive noise, the village is considering banning live outdoor music at local businesses and restaurants starting as early as next summer.

The Sunset Café, a small eatery located in Westhampton Beach that serves organic food, has had a permit application before the village since June, though the business still offered amplified outdoor music on certain days during the summer. Regardless, the business never received any summonses from the village for violating the code, according to village officials.

During last Thursday night’s public hearing on the outdoor music permit application—which was now before the Village Board even though summer ended seven weeks ago—village resident Stephen Ramsay complained about noise coming from the Sunset Avenue Café. Mr. Ramsay, who lives near the business, explained that the shop still offers live amplified music inside the Café, which is allowed as long as the music is not excessively loud.

“How many complaints do you have to get before you don’t give people an outdoor permit?” Mr. Ramsay mockingly asked of board members.

The board opted to deny the establishments’ request without prejudice, meaning that the Café owners can still submit another outdoor music permit application to the village for next summer and that the board would not hold any previous violations against the applicant.

Recently, Mr. Ramsay has taken issue with the fact that Sunset Café advertises itself as a “wine and martini bar” and also offers live Latin music on some Saturday nights, which can be loud. He contends that the “wine and martini bar” aspect of the business, as well as the live Latin music that is offered on certain nights, stray from the original plans for the business. The Westhampton Beach Planning Board approved the operation of an 18-seat coffee shop and luncheonette that primarily serves food, according to Mr. Ramsay. His wife, Barbara, is a former member of the Planning Board.

“The cops have come and not found anything to report,” said L.J. Delman, the manager of the Sunset Café during last week’s meeting. “We close the windows and the doors.”

Westhampton Beach Building Inspector Paul Houlihan said he had visited the Café recently and did not observe any violations in regard to noise levels.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ramsay is alleging that the music emanating from the Café can be heard more than 50 feet away from the establishment, a violation of the village code. “You don’t know the code,” Mr. Ramsay told Ms. Delman. “Under the code, you’re wrong.”

Mayor Conrad Teller curbed discussion on the matter once Mr. Ramsay and Ms. Delman began arguing with one another.

Village Board member Hank Tucker explained that the board was going to be reviewing amplified music regulations in general over the next few months, possibly as early as its next work session scheduled for Wednesday, November 19.

“It’s very hard to control the amplification,” Mr. Tucker said on Monday. “You can’t just sit there in a busy village and hold a meter up and get a [decibel] reading from the music. It’s hard to measure how loud the music is, and we get complaints from residents and shoppers.”

On Friday, Mr. Teller added that the elimination of all amplified outdoor music could be a reality in the village next summer.

“The village will consider eliminating amplified outdoor music totally,” Mr. Teller said. “People like music, but we have people living on Main Street, and we start to have dueling bands.”

Likewise, Mr. Houlihan said the “board will look into banning amplified music. “That’s the secondary issue,” he continued. “That’s where all this is headed.”

Other Business

Also last week, Village Board members approved a special exception permit for a 39-unit condominium project being proposed by developer Robert Muchnick on 6.6 acres on the west side of Old Riverhead Road.

In April, Mr. Muchnick filed a $25 million civil rights lawsuit against numerous village officials, claiming that they unlawfully delayed his application by enacting a building moratorium.

Planning Board Chairman Ralph Neubauer explained that all Mr. Muchnick now needs before breaking ground on his project is to pay village fees and secure a building permit.

Though he earned board approval, Mr. Muchnick said this week that he still intends to advance his lawsuit.

Also at last week’s meeting, the trustees appointed two new members—Patricia DiBenedetto and George Lawrence—to the Westhampton Beach Planning Board. Ms. DiBenedetto and Mr. Lawrence are filling the spots vacated by Sundy Schermeyer and Ms. Ramsay, respectively. Ms. Schermeyer, who is the Southampton Town Clerk, resigned last week, while Ms. Ramsay resigned in August, according to Mr. Neubauer.

Ms. Schermeyer explained on Tuesday that she had notified the village in September that she would be stepping down due to the demands of her full-time job. “It just wasn’t fair to the village, to the other board members or to myself,” she said. “I just couldn’t be in two places at once.”